Baton Rouge Woodworkers Club

Written By Dena Koehn

The Baton Rouge Woodworkers Club was founded in May 2013 and established to foster, promote and improve woodworking skills and safety for amateurs and professionals with interests in all areas of woodworking crafts such as box making, cabinet making, furniture making, turning, carving, intarsia and other woodcrafts. The club also supports the following specific objectives:

  • To promote safety and safe practices in all shop and woodworking activities.

  • To encourage members, visitors and others to be as active as possible in woodworking projects of their interest.

  • To encourage members, visitors and others to expand their knowledge of new or different woodworking crafts and techniques.

  • To promote a network of area woodworkers to share ideas, techniques, skills and cooperative projects.

  • To support community service projects by applying our skills and abilities to assist in projects that will serve some needs in our communities.

Here is a list of the community service projects that the Club has done:

  • Battered Woman’s Shelter Night Stand (March 2014) – built 14 nights stands

  • Rural Life Museum Repairs (Aug 2014) – restored support beams on historical buildings

  • Battered Woman’s’ Shelter Bookshelves (October 2014) – built 14 bookshelves

  • Woodworking Class for Home School Program (October 2014) – held woodworking classes for local home schooling program

  • Rural Life Museum Repairs (Feb 2015) – re-roof of Overseer House historical building

  • Little Angels Foundation (Mar 2015) – sponsored a Fish Fry Fund Raising event and built 30+ caskets

  • HAART Chest of Drawers (April 2015) – build 10 chest of drawers

  • Camp Istrouma Bunk Beds (May 2015) – build 10 bunk beds for the United Methodist Retreat Center and Summer Camp

  • Louisiana Children’s Discovery Museum Snake Enclosure Stand (May 2015) – built a wooden stand for a snake enclosure at the museum

  • OLOL Welcome Wagon (June 2015) – built a rolling welcome cart for OLOL Children’s Hospital

  • Swamp Life Expo Bluebird House Kits (Oct 2015) – built more than 80 Bluebird House Kits and helped the kids build them during the Expo

  • USDA Honey Bee Genetic Research Lab Training (Dec 2015) – trained them on how to safely use bandsaw

  • Battered Woman’s’ Shelter Picnic Table (2015) – built one picnic table

  • Rural Life Museum Repairs (Feb 2016) – finished re-roof of Overseer House historical building

  • Quad Vets Mailbox (Feb 2016) – built 40 slot wooden mailbox

  • Quad Vets Footlockers (Feb 2016) – rebuilt 38 wooden footlockers

  • Louisiana War Veterans Home Rocking Chairs (Mar 2016) – building 25 wooden rocking chairs

  • Swamp Life Expo (2015, 2016, 2017) – helped kids build bird houses

  • Denham Springs Schools (2017) – build 3 computer benches, 2 interior benches, 2 exterior benches, 3 paper roll hangers and 1 mail slots.

  • Flowers School (2017) – helped students build 5 bookcases

  • Pennington YMCA (2017) – built 3 end tables, 2 coffee tables, 1 coffee cabinet, 4 poolside benches and 1 set of conduit covers

The Club is a non-profit Louisiana corporation and a 501c3 tax-exempt organization.

Meetings are held on the first Saturday of each month from 9am to 11am unless otherwise announced. Each meeting a specific skill and safety topic are discussed and demonstrated. Members can bring wood projects or subjects of interest to the meetings as a means of exchanging ideas and techniques and becoming better acquainted.

Amateurs and professionals who are currently involved in all areas of woodworking crafts are invited to become members of the Baton Rouge Woodworkers Club. Beginning woodworkers or others who are interested in learning more about woodworking skills are also encouraged to become members.

Visitors and guests are encouraged and welcomed. Visitors and the guest’s host will be responsible for any special fees that might be assessed to the regular members for that particular meeting. Visitors or guests are usually expected to join if they attend more than two meetings of the club.

Individual annual dues, as set by the Executive Committee, shall be paid upon joining the Club and renewed each subsequent calendar year. Individual fees may set by the Executive Committee for special events, courses, presentations, trips, etc. that are sponsored by the Club.

If you are interested in becoming a member, download this BRWC Membership Application, fill it out and bring it to one of the monthly meetings along with the annual dues. Dues are $20/year and if you join in the 2nd half of the year it would only be $10 for that year.

Learn more: https://www.brwoodworkers.com/

Dena Koehn

Dena Koehn grew up in Rose City, a rural town in mid-Michigan, and moved to southern Michigan to attend Adrian College. She graduated in 2005 with a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in English. After school, she worked in marketing and sales. In 2016 Dena started teaching woodworking classes with Luke in a garage, which eventually became the Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute. She has served many roles at the SBWI, including Outreach Coordinator, Shaker Box Instructor, Secretary, Treasurer, Board Member, Bookkeeper, and now Director of Operations. She is also the Event Coordinator and Social Media Director of the Great Lakes Woodworking Festival, an annual event which brings together the best woodworkers from the Great Lakes region.

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