Sweet Chair-ity Guidance counselor donates time to teach Holden students to make classic furniture

Sherman Williams often gets phone calls from irate people demanding to know when their orders of paint or wallpaper will be in.

But the office of the guidance counselor, who says he’s not related to the famed paint manufacturer, smells of lumber and is cluttered with screwdrivers and other household building material.

On a recent school day, sporting an orange Scooby Doo tie, Williams watched as 14-year-old Felicia Prescott used a chip knife to create an ivy-shaped wooden relief. As the eighth-grader whittled away, the retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel explained why he thinks woodworking should be woven into the educational curriculum at the Holbrook School in Holden.

“In my opinion, many students don’t really make anything today,” the 57-year-old counselor lamented. “Woodworking provides them with an opportunity to create something they can see and touch.”

Williams, who learned how to refinish furniture from his grandfather as a teen, took matters into his own hands and began teaching woodworking to middle schoolers in March. He is working with Prescott individually and has a group project near completion. The latter involves a dozen students, ages 11-14, who are assembling and painting child-sized Adirondack chairs. The 12 wooden lawn chairs will be donated to kindergarten rooms at the Eddington and Holden elementary schools.

“They take the pieces and assemble them into something useful,” the guidance counselor said. “Giving the chairs away provides them an opportunity to do something for others in their community.”

The Adirondack chair project was undertaken in conjunction with KIDS Consortium a service-learning program, in which kindergarten through grade-12 students identify community needs or problems and then work on a plan of action to solve them.

Williams collaborated with Trisha Smith, service-learning coordinator and eighth-grade reading and language teacher, to obtain funds to purchase screws, paint, and 240 feet of lumber needed to construct the chairs. Smith notes such projects require math and other academic skills, but also help strengthen bonds between children and their peers and teachers.

“The program gives kids the opportunity to apply skills they have learned in the classroom,” said Smith. “Kids are more invested in school because the program gives them a purpose and makes them feel needed. It’s the way education should be.”

Williams, a native of Hinsdale, N.H., has been active in various educational programs since he moved to Maine with the Air Force in 1990. At the University of Maine, he worked as an ROTC instructor. When he retired in 1998, after almost 30 years of service, he took a guidance counselor position at Hampden Academy and decided to make Maine his permanent home.

Williams has been a woodworking buff since he began refinishing furniture at age 16 for his grandfather, an antique dealer. At 18, he made his first wooden dining room set and has gone on since then to make bread boxes, wheelbarrows, book shelves and, of course, full-size Adirondack chairs. While working on these home projects, Williams thought about how such an activity would allow children to gain skills that they may not learn in a traditional classroom setting.

“I really enjoy woodworking. It’s a hobby I like to share with others,” he reflected. “This project requires a lot of teamwork, and it provides kids with a good time to talk. I’ve got to know the kids a lot better.”

The Holbrook school does not have a shop, so Williams and the students work on projects in the confines of William’s 220-square-foot office. Because of safety issues, a screwdriver was the only tool approved for student use. Therefore, the bulk of the work – a 40-hour job that involved sawing lumber, sanding it down, and drilling holes – had to be completed by Williams at home.

The Adirondack chairs are 25 inches high and 8 inches wide. The chair seats are about 10 inches above the floor. The students put the pieces of pre-cut lumber together with screws and reinforced it using heavy-duty glue.

As soon as the middle schoolers have completed three of the Adirondack chairs, they will present them to one of the classes. Williams sees the presentation as an intricate part in the learning process.

“By teachers and schools making a big deal out of the project it gives these students a pat on the back,” he said. “But I don’t think the kids are doing it to get recognition. They are doing it because they enjoy it.”

Jen Raymond and Brittany Norris, both in seventh grade, can attest to that. They say that assembling the chairs was fun, and they are looking forward to painting their individual Adirondacks. But the girls admitted that the project was not always smooth sailing.

“Putting the screws into the back of the chair was really hard because we kept hitting our hands,” said Raymond. “But it was a good experience to see how the chairs get put together.”

Both seventh-graders are interested in participating in future woodworking endeavors, which was precisely Williams’ goal. He plans to introduce additional projects, such as wood carving and building wooden benches, to spark student interest.

“These are not service-learning projects, but they are activities I am trying to offer to students to expose them to something different,” he said.

Felicia Prescott has already taken Williams up on this offer. Her leaf carving is slowly taking shape, although she only works on it a few times a week during hour-long study halls or if her bus arrives late. The eighth-grader is fairly new to the Holbrook School, but she seems extremely comfortable, chatting with the guidance counselor while she carves.

“I think these projects help boost kids’ self-esteem,” said Williams. “I want to expand on this and give more students a chance to get involved.”

Williams expects to wrap up the Adirondack chair project before school ends. Currently, the students are priming and putting a finish coat on the chairs.

What brand of paint? Painter’s Touch Rust-oleum in apple red and navy blue. It seems having a similar name doesn’t buy loyalty. But when it comes to woodworking, one can always ask Sherman Williams.