Greenville guild honored

Minwax, a supplier of wood finishing products, recently selected the Greenville Woodworkers Guild of Greenville, S.C., as the grand-prize winner in the 2008 Community Craftsman Award Program.

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The award recognizes individuals and groups that promote community improvement through working with wood. Recipients receive grants and products designed to encourage continued community service. Greenville Woodworkers Guild received a $5,000 cash grant, a supply of Minwax products and a private wood-finishing workshop with DIY television personality and author Bruce Johnson.

Living up to the guild's motto of "Giving through Fellowship," the members of the guild have enriched their community with a wealth of charitable projects, including considerable woodworking done on behalf of Greenville's Meyer Center for Special Needs Children in Greenville, S.C.

"We are very happy to recognize the members of the Greenville Woodworkers Guild for their outstanding community service," says Janet Krakow, vice president of marketing for Sherwin-Williams Wood Care Products. "The members' generosity of spirit and countless hours volunteered truly epitomizes the intent of the Minwax Community Craftsman Award. It also demonstrates how an already gratifying activity - working with wood - can be even more satisfying when done for the good of others."

The Greenville Woodworkers Guild has a long history of creating projects for the Meyer Center, including special furniture built for disabled children, as well as stools, stairs, storage cubbies and physical training equipment. Projects for 2008 included more than 4,000 volunteer hours building office cabinetry for the center's expansion, and additional physical therapy equipment for the facility. For the holiday season, participants in the guild's toy-building classes constructed and donated more than 300 wooden toys to the Meyer Center and other area charitable organizations. Individual guild members also produced many artistic pieces, which were then donated to the center for its annual silent auction fund-raiser.

Minwax also announced the 2008 Individual Recognition Award, which includes a $2,000 cash grant and a supply of Minwax products. The award went to Melvin Satterfield of Columbus, Ohio.

The following three organizations were named Community Craftsman Award runners-up for outstanding community service: the JAX Woodworkers Club in Jacksonville, Fla.; Snow Canyon High School in St. George, Utah; and Morrisville Middle/Senior High School in Morrisville, Pa. Each will receive an assortment of Minwax products for use in future projects.

Minwax has issued call to entries for the 2009 Community Craftsman Award Program. The deadline is Dec. 31 and winners will be announced in early 2010. For information, visit www.minwax.com.

This article originally appeared in the August 2009 issue.