Each entry had to be accompanied by a few words of why you enjoy the scroll saw either as a hobby or a business. Tonight I drew ten random entries from the hundreds submitted. I printed those out and my wife chose the two winning entries from the finalist. I ask her to use any criteria she liked to pick from the final ten entries. I want to show the winning submissions. I will only use the first name but I think you will enjoy reading them also. Maybe over the next few days I'll post some of the other entries also. They are just interesting and inspiring to read. Thanks to everyone who entered.
I will pass along the winning email addresses to Sheila so she can contact you.
Winner #1 Donna:
Why I love scroll sawing I've never had such enjoyment in crafts. It is amazing to
me first that God has given me this talent and 2nd I am sharing this passion
alongside my Mom. Neither of us has ever worked with wood before. It is so relaxing
and amazing that we take a flat plane board and can make something out of it!! It so
inspiring & we are giving back as it is said. We are now working on crosses with a
lavender ribbon on it as a free gift to cancer patients in our area. Each cross is
prayed over before giving it away.
Winner #2 Robert:
Well this is how it all started. In 2006 I had fallen off the side of a dump truck while working in the freezing rain. The truck was covered in ice. When I checked the load the ice under my feet broke and down I went. I messed up my back, neck and shoulder. I had two surgery's on my neck. They wanted to do my back but I could still walk and work so I put it off.
In 2010 I was working on a truck and twisted just right and that was it. I could not stand straighten up could not walk more then 100 feet or so with out being in sever pain. Well workman's comp started fighting it so we lost the only money we had coming in the house. I was out of work for 9 months when they stopped paying and would not okay the surgery either. So as I was depressed so bad that for the first time in my life I had no idea how I was going to feed my kids or pay my rent and other bills. we used all are savings and we had no other road to go down so we went to get government help.
I could not even tell my family I was so ashamed of what was going on. My son who was 10 at the time would set with me and tell me everything would be okay just wait and see. All I would think about was how worthless I was and what kind of life I was giving my kids. I had a small shed and my son and daughter talked me into letting them turn it into a club house and I said they could. Well they talked me into going with them one day and we just sat there and watched a movie on dvd. That is what started me turning around.
I saw a old scroll saw that a friend gave me years before this and I asked my son if he wanted to do some kind of wood working with me and he said that could be daddy time for him so that is what we did but not much because I could not sit up for long at a time. Then I got a letter from my lawyer telling me that the government was going to pay for my surgery a week after that my doctor was doing surgery on me. Two weeks later I was setting up standing up straight and walking as far as the kids would let me.
My son and I started having more and more daddy time in the shed. It was awesome and my daughter who was 8 even wanted some daddy time. Life was starting to look up again.
I was suppose to be out of work for 6 months and with a lot of hard work I went back to my job after only 8 weeks. Light duty only but I was back to work and could hold my head up high I was feeding my kids again myself. I have been back to work for 2yrs now and my kids and I still have daddy time in the shed and we do a lot of stuff on the scroll saw. We give most of it away. We have donated to the sandy hook school snow flakes after the shooting, we sent crosses to Oklahoma Tornado relief for the parents of the kids that where killed in the school, we made a real nice cross for the parents of a 17yr old boy that was killed by a drunk driver. It has the boys picture on both sides so it can be turned around from time to time. I had a friend that knew the guy give it to him. The man has walked up to me like 4 or 5 times to say thank-you and every-time he starts crying and just shacks my hand.
We have made about 35 or more crosses that we put names on and given them to the family's of the one who has passed. Some we have known. Some were friends of a friend or just some tragic accident. but for me it's about the daddy time and a place where I can clear my head after a rough day.
Scroll sawing is one of the things that saved my life. Thank-you Steve Good for some of your patterns and just to let you know even if I don't win this contest I am all ready a winner (p.s. the government got payed back for my surgery and I won my case. Some times things do work out for the little guy) happy scrolling, Robert
