For more than two decades, the Eastern Oklahoma Woodcarvers Association has been carving Christmas ornaments and donating them to local charities.
For the sixth year in a row, the Blue Star Mothers organization received EOWA ornaments, 161 this year alone. The ornaments are included in care boxes sent overseas to armed forces members from Oklahoma.
Bill Payne, our longest serving club member and Korean War Air Force veteran, creates several dozen pieces annually and has already started carving for next Christmas. Former EOWA resident Al Cross, who now lives in upper Wisconsin, still sends the club ornaments each year along with Wisconsin basswood to use for our project.
Other groups to benefit from Christmas carvings over the years have been Tulsa area veterans hospitals, and Emergency Infant Services of Tulsa that received a 29-piece nativity scene for its annual auction. A decorated tree for Philbrook Museum of Arts fundraiser earned members bragging rights that their work once hung in an art museum. Clare House Hospice and the local Ronald McDonald Hose have also received EOWA donations.
Happy Holidays to all from the Eastern Oklahoma Woodcarvers Association membership.
More of the 2021 donations:
