The Mid South Woodturners Guild (MSWG) began their support of the National Beads of Courage Program in late 2015 by donating MSWG-made boxes to Memphis’ own Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. This unique local connection with Le Bonheur became a point of pride for members.
Unfortunately for MSWG, Le Bonheur ended their participation in the national BoC program at the end of 2021.
MSWG and our national organization (The American Association of Woodturners / AAW) continue to support the Beads of Courage program. But without our local donation-point, MSWG member-makers will now be responsible for the cost of shipping their finished boxes to the national Beads of Courage headquarters in Arizona.
There will be collection-points during the Tennessee Association of Woodturners (TAW) Regional (Franklin, TN), the Southwest Association of Turners [SWAT] Regional (Waco, TX), and the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) International Symposiums (various cities in the USA). Some of the MSWG members who attend these events have offered to transport finished BoC boxes on behalf of MSWG.
Bottom line - If you would like to continue YOUR participation in the Beads of Courage box-making effort, please know that you must either (a) ship your finished boxes to BoC National at your own expense or (b) coordinate with members planning to attend the collection-point events listed above.
If you have BoC-related questions, please contact MSWG’s BoC chairman Joseph Voda.
