Hunt County (Texas) Fair TAT Results

[Art Hendrix]

The Hunt County Woodturners made Freedom Pens for 9 days at the Hunt County Fair, with a final total of 483 pens. Jackie & Keith, you should have them within a day or two. We mailed them last Wednesday in 2 boxes, regular mail.

As usual, it was the hottest 9 days we have had this year so far, and we were set up outdoors, but we perservered. We only had 2 lathes running for 7 of the days, but added another for the last 2 days.

We were happy to have Ed Heuslein from the Tyler club join us one day. Craig Fyock and his 12-year-old daughter, Mallory, from the Dallas club turned with us for 2 days. We thank those 3 for helping out--without them our total would be considerably less.

We are proud to have contributed these pens to the FP Program. Those servicemen/women need our continued support. A Freedom Pen made by someone who doesn't know them is a big moral booster. We have had several letters with those sentiments.

There were some very nice pens made here. There were also several folks who turned their first pens. The National Guard had a booth set up at the fair, and every day one of the young men working there came over in his uniform and turned a pen. Turns out he is the nephew of one of our club members, so he was familiar with the lathe. He said he thought it would be cool for a serviceman to get a pen made by another serviceman. We thought so, too! We may have some pics later.


Art Hendrix

[Keith Outten]

Thanks Art,

Sounds like you had a great time in spite of the warm weather and the number of pens turned is awesome. Now that we have been approved as a Non-Proffit Organization by the US Treasury I hope we will be able to provide more free pen kits as donations increase and more people will be able to join us making pens.

Recently I have been communicating with some of the Military Brass in the Middle East who are going to help us get our pens to the troops in the field. With their help we sould be able to continue sending pens directly to those who will be most appreciative of such special gifts. Thanks to Mike Leonard for helping me to make a direct connection to the folks who are willing to assist our project.

Thanks to The Hunt County Woodturners for all their hard work and dedication.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Outstanding job folks!

Bruce

[Craig Fyock]

It was a fun time. Mallory and I had tons o fun even with the heat. A hot sweatie, muggy, humid day of outdoor turning is better than a cool airconditioned day working.