Penn State Industries

As part of their club’s Youth Outreach endeavors, eleven members of the Bayou Woodturners, a New Orleans area chapter of the American Association of Woodturners, recently conducted a half day demo and hands-on pen turning workshop for students at East St. John High School in the outlying community of Reserve, Louisiana. Developed over several weeks by Rick Myers at the request of the school’s Talented in Visual Arts Department, headed by his wife Carol Jane Myers, the scope quickly grew to include students in other classes, including Wood Shop.

   Initial planning assessed the Wood Shop’s previously underutilized equipment, tools, supplies, and their condition. From there, several objectives quickly developed that included: Cover safety, terminology, and other basics with an initial demo and follow with a turning opportunity for approximately thirty 10th – 12th grade students, assisted by experienced woodturners supplying their own lathes and tools for the event.

    They emphasized the immense variety of items producible on a lathe while starting new turners with a project that an inexperienced person can complete in one session. From tools, equipment, and finishes, including emphasis on the variety of ways available to produce a similar basic end result.

Expose potential new turners to the self satisfaction and myriad rewards of transforming somewhat ordinary pieces of wood into eye-popping objects of beauty and utility.

 Revive administrators’ interest in woodworking in general, with emphasis on woodturning in particular.

   Develop processes, lines of communication, and plans for ongoing Youth Outreach support of woodturning at interested schools.

    Coupled with the Bayou Woodturners’ ongoing contributions to The Freedom Pens Project—a  project that to date has supplied over 110,000 custom turned pens at no cost to deployed U.S. armed forces members in appreciation for their service—a pen turning workshop for the students was a natural choice.

   Prior to the event, the teachers were supplied with the Penn State Industries pen turning instructional DVD, slimline pen assembly instructions, and suggestions for an optional assignment the students could utilize to develop ideas for pen types and shapes. In a last minute surprise, the school’s Principal also invited the entire 9th grade to participate!

    Considering the logistics of suddenly handling over 150 students, we accommodated the 9th graders as observers only, thus whetting their appetite to participate the next time. Throughout the day of the workshop, in groups of 2 or 3 classes, these 9th graders arrived, each shift spending an hour or more getting their questions answered while viewing the pen turning, sanding, finishing, and assembly activities of their older classmates as well as the variety of turnings on the Instant Gallery table.

  Through the generosity of participating woodturners, the original 10th – 12th grade students were provided with enough additional materials to produce their first pen for Freedom Pens, a second pen to keep for themselves, and any subsequent pens again for donation to Freedom Pens.

    As a result, the participating students discovered new abilities in areas of interest that might never have been developed without the exposure from the workshop. Administrators gained insight into the value of a strong woodturning program, including the generous support available from area woodturners. The experienced woodturners had a blast and everyone—students, teachers, and turners–is eager to have another workshop.

    From experienced woodturners helping students, to students learning to make pens for donation as well as themselves, perhaps the best lesson of the event was discovering the pleasure and satisfaction derived from giving back to your community—especially when you can do it through woodturning.

— Rick Myers

Just wanted to drop you a line and let you all know how much we appreciate the quality of the products from Penn State. The DVD and lesson plan is a great idea, ( just ordered it on-line) and we are going to expand our student run business operation to include the making of pen and pencil kits.

Thanks again for all you do. Keep up the good work!

John H Rousch,

Career and Technical Education Instructor
Lake Placid High School, Lake Placid, FL

Thank you so much for the beautiful pens. All I can say is……WOW! I cannot express my appreciation enough for the support and thoughtfulness. You should be receiving some thanks and hopefully some pictures, I have attached a picture of our Avionics  division which we took yesterday, which unfortunately was a day before we received your wonderful gifts. However, I’m sure you will receive some pictures of the Marines using those fine pens also.

Thanks again and God Bless you all,
Bob MGySgt R.H. Enfinger Jr.
MALS-40 AVC
Go Gator

Good Morning,
My name is GySgt Bravo, Lazaro and I’m stationed in Camp Pendleton. I’m the Powerplants Division Chief here in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. I want to send to you a sincere and heartfelt, thank you for taking the time to think of all of us and the effort you put into making us these pens. We are very appreciative and they will definitely be of very good use here amongst the shop.
Again we just want to show our gratitude and let you know the importance of such people as yourselves. We are very grateful for all of your support.
Hopefully we don’t scare anybody with our ugly mugs.
Thank You from the crew of Powerplants.

Lutheran High School  in Orange, CA has made 446 pens so far this year and they are planning another
turnathon.

These photographs were taken while the Freedom Pens were distributed to personnel aboard the aircraft carrier the USS George Washington this past year.

I want to thank the school division of Penn State Industries for your help in getting Davisville Middle School off and running on the 2008-09 freedom pen project. We here at DMS believe that our help is going to a great cause to support our military defending our country. Our school goal is to finish 200 pens over the school year to donate to the armed services. Last year we contributed over 60 pens for this worthy cause.

I made the move to Penn State because I believe your company’s dedication, concern, and support is aimed at helping out schools in this endeavor. I am elated with the products that I have received from Penn State Industries and my future PO’s will be devoted to PSI. I have dedicated my 8th grade program towards community/country service projects and the students are willing and able to help and support the troops.

Michael Berndt
Tech Ed./ IA Instructor
Davisville Middle School
North Kingstown, RI 02852

Thank you for giving my Exploring industrial Technology Education class the opportunity to support our troops with the Freedom Pen Project. The  Freedom Pen Project gave us a chance to do something for others. We started making pens this semester and the students have responded with great enthusiasm, Many want to continue this activity at home and a wood working lathe and pen making equipment is now on their Christmas list. I have given out all of my Penn State Industry catalogs. Thanks again. We will hope to participate again in this project.

Richard Newberry,

EITE teacher Southwest Junior High Springdale, Arkansas

The freedom pen project was created by the Saw Mill Creek Woodworker’s forum to provide hand made pens for our military stationed in foreign countries. The goal of the project is for every freedom pen to serve as a constant reminder to our troops that they are not alone and that they have our continuing support.
Penn State Industries regularly sends Freedom Pens to our troops – Here’s an opportunity for your school to participate in this worthy project.
Request your “Freedom Pen” package #FPPROJ with any order of $150 or more.

The kit consists of:

• 10 Slimline Pen Kits
• Set of 20 Rosewood or Padauk EZ blanks (enough to make 10 pens)
• Set of 10 Clear Pouches
• Set of 10 inserts to be included with the pens

Value $34.55 if purchased separately
After your pens are completed, mail them back to the Penn State Industries School Division and we will have the pens forwarded to our troops. Instructions for participation are included with the package.

(Note: We trust that schools will participate in good faith, and that completed pens will be returned to us within 60 days.)

This pen was brought to you through a cooperative effort involving Penn State Industries and the Sophomore and Kindergarten Classes of the Jefferson C-123 School District. Penn State Industries provided the materials, the Sophomore Class constructed the pens, and the Kindergarten Class provided the addresses and mailing.

Thank you for making this project possible. My class is very excited. The photograph and message above is being inserted into each bag along with the pen. We hope you enjoy our “Thank You” note. The children dictated to me what to write — they organize thoughts better than I do sometimes.
Thank you again!
Susan Swinford
Kindergarten Teacher

I had an excellent opportunity this summer to teach over 200 students how to make their first turned pen using a lathe. My name is Tim and I work at YMCA Camp Collins in Gresham, Oregon, as the Maintenance Manager.
Our campers ranged from 6-14 years old, boys and girls, English and foreign speaking, and children with special needs. The students were excited to make a perfect pen, regardless of their age or ability.
Before one assumes that I have many years of experience turning pens, I want to make it known that I turned my first pen 3 weeks before campers arrived at camp. The learning curve is very quick.
Each cabin of students (10-12 students) would arrive for a one hour session of pen making in which they would be divided into pairs. One partner would make a pen during the first class, and later that week the other partner would make their pen. I used 2 lathes to accomplish as much production as possible. The first lathe had the duplicator, and the other lathe was only for sanding and finishing.
Before each class arrived I needed to prepare the wood blanks, which I cut from fallen trees on the camp property, then I would round all the edges on the lathe to reduce about 3 minutes off the overall time.
The class looked something like this:
Students arrive at 1:00
Introduced myself and the tools and safety rules of the shop.
The cabin divides into partners and numbers each group.
Group 1 starts turning while everyone watches.
After turning (usually 6-9 minutes) I take the turned blanks to the other lathe and demonstrate sanding and finishing techniques.
Once finished, we assemble the pens with the pen press.
Group 2 starts immediately following the completion of Group 1 and then each lathe was in use for the remainder of the session.
Session 1 usually finished only 5 pens and the remaining 6-7 pens were finished during Session 2.
All of the pens made were Slimline pens and were treated with Shellawax, then put into a plastic case to protect the pen.
Camp is finished for the summer and pen turning has already been put into next years list of events. Students and teachers alike had a great time making the pens and enjoyed starting a tradition.

Tim Fast, Maintenance Manager
YMCA Camp Collins

Dear Penn State Industries,

I would like to first thank you on behalf of all 103 students enrolled in the Technology Education courses at Carol City Middle School in Miami-Dade County, FL.

My students really enjoyed the opportunity you and Saw Mill Creek Woodworker’s forum provided to honor our men and women in uniform. Along with the 10 pen kits supplied from Penn State and 103 from Saw Mill Creek, we created a total of 113 pens. We have participated in the Freedom Pen Project for several years now and each time it is truly an enjoyable experience. The responses from our servicemen/women shows overwhelmingly the joy they received from any support they get from folks back home.

So on that note, we again say "THANK YOU!!!"
Vaden M. Scott
Technology Education Instructor
Carol City Middle School Miami-Dade County, FL