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“It’s Grandpa Day!” grins a three-year-old girl as she hops out of the family car in the carpool line. The children, both boys and girls, look forward to this day. Grandpa Day is a very special day that happens once a month; it’s the day that a group of retired men from the community and the church with which we are affiliated come to our school to do woodworking with the children. We call them our Grandpas as a show of respect rather than to indicate a family
relationship.

“What would you like to make today?” asks a Grandpa.

“I want to make the fastest race car ever!” “I want to make a tree.” “I want to make a princess with real hair.” “I want to make a mermaid.” These, and many other projects dreamed up by the children, ages three years through kindergarten, spur the imaginations of the Grandpas as they are challenged to help turn these ideas into reality.

Going to cardboard boxes set around the periphery of the playground patio, the children and Grandpas look in the boxes, each filled with scraps of wood sorted according to shape and size, to find just the right pieces to construct the desired project. Other boxes contain plastic and metal bottle caps, juice can lids, wooden spools, and assorted treasures. Taking all the necessary items back to the workbenches, the children don protective goggles as the
Grandpas position the wood and start the first nail before handing the hammer to the children.

How it all began

Our school is a part of the ministry of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. In the early 1990s George Volkel was the coordinator for the carpentry program that was offered during the church’s vacation bible school known as Summer Celebration. Several men would make 400 to 600 woodworking kits and, during the week of Summer Celebration, would help the children assemble them. Knowing what a popular activity this was and wanting a meaningful intergenerational experience for the preschool children, I asked George aboutthe possibility of starting a carpentry project at the school and he agreed to it.

George brought in scrap wood, nails, and a hammer and sat with the boys and girls on the ground, helping them build. The activity was an instant success; soon children were waiting in line to build. It was apparent that we needed more wood, more nails, and more woodworking Grandpas!

George recruited more people, many of whom had worked with the children at Summer Celebration, and became the first official coordinator of the Woodworking Grandpas. He and some of the other men cut scrap wood into various sizes and shapes, sorted them into boxes, and brought them to the school. We added bottle caps, jar lids, and flat metal discs from frozen juice cans. Together we gathered saws and hammers and lots of nails and we were ready to go!

In the beginning, the boys and girls and the Grandpas sat on the ground on the playground while building. Then, in the mid-1990s, some friends of the school built two sturdy workbenches, a very welcome addition to the woodworking project. Those benches are still in use. The Grandpas brought (and continue to bring) stools to sit on and the children stand �" for the best leverage. There once was a shed attached to the original school, which was used to store playground equipment. A group of Boy Scouts, headed by a young man working on an Eagle Scout project, built shelves in the shed where the Grandpas could store their wood, tools, and other materials.

When it rained, Grandpa Day had to be cancelled, since we had no room inside the school. Eventually a covered walkway was built in the front of the school. One day, it started to rain just as the Grandpas were arriving. They were very pleased to see that the teachers had carried the workbenches �" which are quite heavy �" out under the covered walkway. That gesture was very meaningful to the men. It made them realize how much the work they did meant to the children and how valued they were by the teachers as well.

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