Groundswell Center & Hammerstone host Carpentry Workshop for Women

Last Friday Groundswell Center and #Hammerstone School of Carpentry for Women teamed up to teach a free workshop to women who helped build a new produce wash-station at the Groundswell Incubator Farm.  Thanks to funding from the Park Foundation, the Legacy Foundation and the Community Foundation of Tompkins County Women’s Fund, we were able to offer this workshop free of charge and prioritize enrollment to underrepresented women including refugees, people of color and low-income women.  Funding also enabled us to provide tool belts, childcare and transportation to the Incubator Farm.

 

Women from as far as Philadelphia and as close as EcoVillage, as young at 16, to much older 😉 joined us for a full day of teaching and hands-on carpentry!  Participants learned the basics of using a speed square and a tape measure, learned to cut a straight line with a hand saw, and then two different types of circular saws, and learned about board and batten siding and how to install it.  It was a fun and full day of making friends, building confidence and acquiring useful new skills!

 

Here’s a few quotes from the participants:

“I will use all of it! … using a hand saw, power saw, measurement, and nailing a wall.”

“With team work, we get things done more quickly.”

“I’ll use these skills with Habitat for Humanity, my own use, others that could use help. All the info has improved my confidence in carpentry.”

“I thought carpentry is too difficult, [but now I know] it is something I can do!”

 

Hopefully we’ll be able to offer a course like this again! Stay tuned. Plus, if you have carpentry skills to share, we could use some extra help to frame the walls of the wash station in September or October.
Please get in touch!

 

Here’s a few photo highlights of the workshop for your enjoyment…