A Cause for Walking Sticks

Earlier this year my father’s cousin Michael sent us some information about a former Army Ranger, Rory Fanning, who decided to take time out of his life to walk clear across the US to raise funds for The Pat Tillman Foundation. Rory’s quest is personal, he served with Tillman, and the two were close friends through training and under fire. Micheal’s son Desmond served with the same ranger battalion as Rory Fanning & Pat Tillman so the cause touched our family.

This note made me think that perhaps we could help support Rory’s quest. When my father (Stan Saperstein) decided to declare himself retired from the shop (except of course when he has a better way than mine …) he began to ramp up his hobbies which include whittling/carving a unique variety of folk art walking sticks, canes, and hiking staffs. We have probably hundreds of photos of these projects in various states of in progress through completion, some in use.

The thought process should become obvious – walking sticks – walking quest … I got in touch with Rory and we setup a program where Artisans will donate a portion of proceeds from walking stick commissions to the “Walk for Pat” foundation – which in turn will be forwarded to The Pat Tillman Foundation. The details of what became known as “A Cause for Walking Sticks” is detailed in the article links below. Our 2009 Q2 newsletter features Desmond’s unit, and a variety of other articles and features.

http://www.artisansofthevalley.com/docs/Artisans_Quarterly_Review_Vol2_Issue2_2009.pdf

http://www.artisansofthevalley.com/docs/WalkForPat_WalkingSticks.pdf

Our walking sticks gallery is featured on our spin-off website: www.customwalkingsticks.com

These unique sticks feature a variety of customizations including carvings of eagles, hawks, ravens, and owls. There are rams, dogs, cats, bears, wolves, and buffalo. A few dozen snakes or more over the years, including a wizard’s staff with a black cobra swallowing a jewel. Mason sticks, historic themes, and dream catchers. We can’t forget diamond willow – these staffs are always eye catching.

His staffs are from milled lumber or natural saplings or branches. Details are carved, whittled, burned, inlaid, or painted. Materials include diamond willow, walnut, oak, ebony, rosewood, poplar, oak, boxwood, basswood, bone, ivory, gold, silver, copper, even jewels. It all depends on the project. I’ll post some individual staff features shortly.

Since everyone here is obviously in possession of skills and talents – take this as one possible way you can put those gifts towards supporting an important cause. Works of art you create can be offers for auction, raffles, or portions of proceeds can be contributed. We are discussing some other projects were we can forge relationships with various foundations, I’m hoping to post more details on those soon.

-- Eric M. Saperstein, Master Craftsman www.artisansofthevalley.com