Nailing it at Bronx Park

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This article was published 10/01/2019 (2706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you’ve ever used the woodworking shop at Bronx Park, you have Michaelene Ness and a dedicated group of volunteers to thank.

Since 2014, the wood shop at Bronx Park Community Centre (720 Henderson Hwy.) has been hosting a full slate of educational woodworking classes for adults. 

“We attract people from all over the city to come use our shop,” Ness said. “Whenever we offer an introductory to woodworking class, they’re full, with waiting lists. We just don’t have time to offer more classes.”

The shop has five separate work spaces, and “just about any kind of machine you’d need.” The eight week introductory courses are the most popular, Ness said.

“We do a couple small projects, but the main emphasis is learning to use the equipment properly and safely,” Ness said. “In the second-level class it is more project-based. They get their own materials, and with the help of an instructor, get to make whatever projects they want.”

One-time courses on specific tools — the router and lathe, for example — and techniques also fill up quickly.

“We do a one-day course on baseboards and casings,” she said. “A lot of people are doing home renovations, and they really want those casings to look nice.”

When the new Bronx Park building was built in 2009, tools from a City-owned wood shop in Elmwood that was shutting down were moved over to Bronx. However, it took nearly five years to raise $180,000 needed to buy and install a ventilation system and properly wire the space.

“You can’t run a wood shop without that dust collector,” Ness said.

The shop also hosts supervised drop-in times throughout the week for experienced wood workers. After taking a one-time orientation course that costs $25, woodworkers pay $8 per visit to use the space.

“The winter months are a hard time to work in the garage or backyard, wherever your equipment is located,” Ness said. “But the wood shop is only so big, and you get six people doing their own thing, and it’s full.”

Along with fees from courses and drop-ins, the shop holds an annual used tool sale to fund operations.

“It’s like a garage sale,” Ness said. “People bring in used tools, we sell them, give you back the asking price you had minus 15 per cent, which goes back into supporting the wood shop.”

Ness hopes to expand the sale to a weekend long “wood fest” event.

“We’ll invite vendors, demonstrators and presenters, with open workshops and presentations going on, all surrounding wood,” she said. “We want to promote woodworking to the general public.”

While course instructors are paid, Ness said that volunteers keep the shop open.

“It’s a huge job to keep this shop running,” she admitted. “We wouldn’t be running this kind of program without our volunteers.”

For more information on the Bronx Park woodworking shop, visit www.bronxpark.ca/woodshop.html or email BronxParkWoodshop@gmail.com

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112

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