Our Story

Parents in need of tables and desks...

Towards the end of July 2020 it became apparent that students would be relegated to virtual schooling from home as the pandemic headed into the new school year. Around that time I started seeing people on Facebook asking for donated tables or desks for their kids. The local stores were completely sold out and many online vendors were backlogged as well.

In mid-August I caught a suggested YouTube video from a channel named “The Wood Whisperer”. Marc Spagnuolo, the host, had built two simple and inexpensive desks for his toddler-aged kids and produced a video for it (https://thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/diy-kids-school-desk-quick-easy-inexpensive/). As I was watching it, the idea clicked. These desks were easy to make and cost very little in terms of wood. I mentioned it to Sonya and we agreed that I’d make two desks that weekend and give them away to two of the people who were in need of kids’ desks.

At the same time, I couldn’t find any kid-sized chairs to accompany the desks so I scaled down a version of the outdoor deck chairs I built earlier in the spring and it was a pretty good match. By Sunday we had two desk sets completed and we gave them away, to the sheer joy of some very creative kids. They sent us photos of the decorated desks a few days later.

The following weekend I made six larger-sized desks for older or taller students and we gave those away. Then, over the Labor Day weekend we completed a whopping 10 total kid-sized desks and chairs. It was an absolute exhausting effort but seeing the look in the kids’ faces who received them made up for all the work.

We had given away 18 desks at that point and the list of people we knew who needed them was longer than when we started. That is when we stepped back and decided to formalize this project with a bit more structure—and funding. We launched a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising money to be able to build 30 more desks and chairs, roughly the number of people on our waiting list. The campaign met the goal in only three days!

In addition, we had great feedback from local people in the community who heard what we were doing, which brought out a few offers to volunteer to help make desks. A big boost came from local musician Sean Healen who announced our project during his weekly live streaming concert. We now have another woodworker making desks from that shout-out.

That is where we are at this point. We want this to become a long-term effort. Ideally, we would love to see it take root in other communities. For now we are growing the effort in Santa Fe through volunteer recruitment and hosting building clinics to teach others how to make these simple desks.

Some of our desks to date

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