A portion of the proceeds from the Guild Wood Recovery Program is used to purchase kiln-dried wood from a mill in Chemainus. This wood is then distributed by the VIWG to schools in the Greater Victoria Area. The donated wood enhances the woodworking program at the schools providing better quality and more variety for student projects.
2016
Jemco Enterprises in Chemainus generously provided lower grade maple at a very reasonable price for distribution to the high schools. This year five schools in the Victoria area received between 400 and 500 board feet of western maple; Edward Milne Secondary, Claremont Secondary, Stelly’s Secondary, Victoria Secondary and Belmont Secondary.
This is a letter from one of the schools;
“To the Vancouver Island Woodworkers Guild:
Thank you all for your donation of Western Maple to our school, “Stellys Secondary”.
Today, Wayne Holmes delivered more Western Maple to our wood shop. I can not express our thanks in words. We now have enough maple for all our students to make our dovetail and wooden hinge jewelry box. Normally we would be using pine. Pine is a good wood on its own, but the maple looks better, provides a higher challenge, and is more durable as a hard wood. All in all, a more successful completion for this project.
As you probably know, recent cutbacks to our school budget meant we went from hardwood projects to softwoods. Now we can return to the hardwoods, and western maple is a beautiful material to work with.
Could you thank the “Guild” for this donation? I will send some pictures of the box project to you, when we complete this project.
Thank you,
Brent Birney
Stellys Secondary School
Saanich School District #63
2017
Paul Beltgens, owner and president of Jemico Enterprises, donated approximately 1000 board feet of fir and maple. Guild members delivered this wood to Edward Milne High School, Belmont High School, Victoria High School, Claremont High School, Stelly’s High School and Glanford Middle School. The fir and maple will allow students make larger items such as tables and desks.
“Hi Wayne,
Many thanks once again to you and the Woodworkers Guild for your efforts in supplying us with wood for our Woodworking program. In these times of skinny budgets, it’s a great help in making it possible for students to learn skills by building significant projects. Please also pass along my sincere thanks to the gentleman who so kindly donated the material.
Best regards,
Bert Haupt
Wood Technology Teacher
Belmont Secondary School”
“A HUGE thank you from Stellys wood shop. The wood is beautiful and will be useful for many student projects. I really appreciate your time and effort both in sourcing the wood and then delivering it to us to boot. Thank you and all of your members for making this happen.
Patrick Weston
Stellys Wood Shop”
“Hi Wayne,
Thanks again for the wood. It will really come in handy in the future.
Thanks again,
Jeremy O’Shea
Edward Milne High School”
2019
This year, 2019, the Guild Executive again approved the purchase of wood for eight greater Victoria schools. Seven pickup trucks went to the mill in Chemainus, Paul Beltgens of Jemico Enterprises Ltd was there to greet us. Paul offered us about 3000 board feet of maple that had knots and cracks in it at no charge. The 7 pickup trucks delivered that wood to the schools and then six of the same vehicles went up the next week to pick up another 3000 board feet of cabinet grade alder for the same schools.
The schools receiving the wood included Mount Doug, Oak Bay, Victoria High, Claremont, Belmont, Edward Milne, Glanford, John Stubbs and Lighthouse Christian Academy. Each school received from 100 to 500 board feet of lumber. The amount each school received depended on the number of students they were teaching. The schools were extremely thankful for the wood that they received.
Thanks from the Guild for the generosity of Jemico Enterprises.
