WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A local group of wood turners is sharing their unique skill to reach out to wounded service men and women.
“Our major passion is wood turning,” says Byron Rosbrugh, president of the Wilmington area Woodturners Association, or WAWA.
Now that passion will help more than 200 wounded warriors in Fayetteville. WAWA is donating walking canes to injured service men and women at Fort Bragg. With two retired colonels in the group, they wanted to give back.
“I think they’ll become a personal item that will be meaningful to them, knowing that somebody made it for them,” says Rosbrugh. “It takes a lot of time and energy to make that many of them, to make 230 of them,” he says.
Rosbrugh says a local hardwood company donated the African mahogany used to make them. He has designed and built about 90 canes himself. From there, the other 90 members will help with the finishing touches.
“Everybody is going to be a different height and a different weight, so we’ll take the cane that will fit them best, size it, put a rubber tip on it and they’re ready to go,” says Rosbrugh.
The group plans to present the finished products in August or September during a ceremony at Fort Bragg. But Rosbrugh says the project will not end there.
“Hopefully there’ll be less people getting wounded as they come back from overseas, but there’s always going to be some,” he says.
WAWA has also contacted Camp Lejeune to eventually help out wounded warriors closer to home.