In a nutshell, there’s a small town high school about 20 miles from here. Their wood shop class seems to stand out to me. The teacher is a really good guy, the students are always enthusiastic, and for high school kids, they actually turn out decent things.
Now I get to see them once every couple of months because they need wood. We sell wood, and we basically wholesale it to them and deliver 500bdft at a time when they need it. The kids then “buy” what they need from the school. But I can’t help but notice the tools. Its a garage sale with rust. I think the newest thing in there is still older than me, and for all those kids, one bandsaw (currently broke) one chop saw, two old tablesaws, one really low end 6″ jointer, ok, you get the pic.
I’m not independently wealthy. And power tool companies aren’t, and can’t, be in the business of giving freebies to everyone. But how could your average just plain interested guy go about raising a buck for those kids? I already asked the teacher what his budget is and he couldn’t even buy a bandsaw for his 1 year allottment. I’d love to find a way to help them out a little.
Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
Replies
A noble gesture if I may say so RW. :-)
Ask Timmy, but I think Festool now donates returned tools to schools, that could be a start.
Scott W.
Oh ho ho ho ho . . .
and guess who's gonna be at the BBQ on Saturday . . .
I better wear the good work pants.Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
RW,
I'm familiar with a cooperative situation that has benefited a high shool shop and a bunch of woodworkers - perhaps you could explore something similar. Here is how it works:
The high school shop teacher offers an open shop night to a select group of woodworkers once/week during the school year. The teacher stays that evening (no pay) to 'supervise' the users. This is a private school, but I don't know that it matters.
That select group of woodworkers mentioned above are employees at a large corporation near the school. The company has numerous activity clubs, photography, travel, various sports, and of interest here, a woodworking club. The woodworking club donates one piece of machinery each year to the high school (probably about $500, $600) as well as some additional funds to pay for blade sharpening and the like in exchange for the use of the shop one night/week. The members of the club like that they can do project work at a spacious shop. And now that this arrangement has been going on for many years the school shop is much better equipped than most woodworkers have at home. The donation from the Woodworking Club comes from member dues and a stipend that the corporation gives to each activity club.
I hope this helps spark some ideas on how to help in the school that you mentioned.
Best of luck,
Jerry
RW ,
Perhaps you could try your hand at Grant writing .
Some of the big box stores Sears or maybe any unions or trades that could benefit from skilled labor . check with local civic groups and service organizations like the Kiwanis or Rotary club or any others local , when youth are involved many will contribute .
good luck dusty
RW,
If your in the business of selling wood, you may want to mention this to some of your other clients. Lots of business's have extra tools in workshops that are unused or severly underused. A donation to a school may be something they are interested in.
Buster
You might talk to the managers of local tool retailers, especially those who sell to commercial customers. If they cannot donate new stuff, they might be able to make a sale of a new tool to one of their customers by arranging a tax-deductible donation of an old tool to the school; win, win, win.
You could try to get all your woodworking friends to help you have a benefit auction. If you could get them to build a project of any means and donate it to the auction. It would probably work better in conjunction with help from the students by combining it with a benefit dinner to increase the number of the participating public to get more bids on the projects. A spaghetti and meatball dinner where you charge for each item is relatively inexpensive to put together.
We get to soon oldt und to late schmart
talk to the editor of a local newspaper they often are looking for human intrest stories
i have done this a number of times none for my benefit directly
one was a woman author , another carved birds
i even got them to do a article on a modular home builder in the area
if there are any women involved in the subject matter the press usually jumps on it like a hot tomalle
if you are in a small rural area the big city papers read the rural papers for articles of intrest
think up a good story line like your origional post only dont say much about your gains from your client they dont want to be seen as boosting your income
all my leads to the paper were customers of mine ( hint hint )
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