Armed Forces Day Turn-A-Thon great sucess!

[Mike Mastin]

We had 11 lathes, 22 turners, great weather and 300+ pens turned today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David Rose from Wichita Falls, Texas turned 40 pens by himself today!!!!!!! What an effort. Bob Tabor from College Station, Texas dropped in and turned with us as well. Bob represented the Brazos County and Gulf Coast Woodturners.

Pictures galore(to follow soon). What a day. Great group of folks that worked their hearts out for this great cause. Thanks to the Dallas Area Woodturners( 3 members attending), Hunt County Woodturners(14 members attending) and Golden Triangle Woodturners (2 members attending).

[Martin Shupe]

Fantastic Mike! Thanks for sponsoring a great event! I am sorry I couldn't be there.

Jerry, I believe the gauntlet has been thrown in your direction!

The Arlington Rockler needs to start working now to get ready to surpass 300 pens!

300 pens in one day! Ken, is that the record?

[Keith Outten]

Wow, 300 pens is a very big day and my hat is off to David Rose for making 40 pens in a day. Sounds like Mike had a great time as well!

Congratulations to all you Texans for your hard work, wish I could have been there.

[Jerry Stringer]

OK, I concede! Ya'll are now the proud record holders! :D

GREAT JOB!!!!! 300 pens is gonna be hard to beat!

I had planned on being there today but some problems came up with a rent house I had to take care of.

Do you have letters to go with each pen? If not, I have a stack of them from donations that the Burleson High kids obtained. If you need letters I can fix you up!

Thanks and again . . . GREAT JOB!!!

Jerry

[Ken Salisbury]

Great job ! ! ! ! and 300 pens in one day is certainly a record.

However, records are made to be broken. Lets see is some group can top 300/day. :)


Just a teaser: - - I am aware of a group (name withheld so as not to steal their thunder) that has 442 pens made and 162 more in process and plan on a shipment soon of over 600 pens. :)

[Daniel Yourdon]

300 Pens!!!
Way to raise the bar. and the competition is really a great thing considering how it is making such huge strides toward our goal.
And Jerry I wouldn't take this lying down. Better get anouther TAT going quick :eek:

[Dan Henry]

It was a great day for a GREAT cause!! The Hunt County Woodturners all had fun making pens and thanks Mike for hosting the event. It was neat to have people come in off of the street and turn a pen, we might just have some new turners!!


Dan Henry HCW

[Art Hendrix]

We want to report on Mike Mastin from Curly Woods. He was a great host! From the time we all arrived to set up, to the end of the day, he was always there to help. If someone needed something and he didn't have it, he or one of his employees went out and got it. He provided donuts, coffee, drinks, lunch, and a wide variety of blanks.

The only negative thing was that the wood in his shop was so beautiful that a lot of time was lost when the turners had to stop and pet the wood. If you look at the last picture he took, you will notice about half of the group is behind a HUGE burl sitting on the floor. It was awesome. Everyone had to pet it, more than once!

Getting together with other turners for a great cause is what it was all about!

Art and Margie Hendrix
Hunt County Woodturners

[Mike Mastin]

I want to again say thank you to all of the woodturners that came in support of the Freedom Pens Turn-A-Thon last Saturday. Frank and I thoroughly enjoyed having each and everyone of you there and we hope that all of you and more will consider coming back again this Fall for Freedom Pens Turn-A-Thon 2 at Curly Woods. We did not hit our mark of 500 pens and I really want to do all that we can to support our troops! I want to see lathes all over the parking lots next time. We have room for at least 50 lathes inside and in the parking lots (if the weather is nice) to do this too. Maybe 1000 pens should be our next goal! We are still a long ways from the total needed to meet our goals and I just want to challenge all woodturning clubs and woodturners to go for it. After I read some of the letters from service men and women that have received their Freedom Pens, I was even more struck with a sense of pride and desire to see that these fine people get all that I can give to all of them for their efforts on my behalf.

God bless them and may each of them return home safe and sound soon!