Dozens of lathes buzzed under the grind of chisels. Sawdust drifted into small piles on the floor. The scene wasn't a wood shop but the conference room at North Oaks Diagnostics Center in Hammond.
Artists in the medium of wood – some lifelong woodworkers, some relatively new wood turning hobbyists; some local, some from afar; one blind – toiled over their machines for hours, intent on crafting beautiful ink pens for soldiers stationed overseas. In all, 27 wood turners volunteered their time and equipment to create 294 pens at the 2024 Sgt. Joe Kelly Freedom Pen Foundation Annual Turn-A-Thon.
The pens will ship this week and soon be in the hands of those looking for a connection to home. "The biggest thing for the troops is staying in touch with their families. This gives them something they can use," said Bobby McCarley, a resident of Watson retired from the Air Force Reserve.
"The original idea was to turn 200,000 pens, and we've gone way past that." The effort has so far turned out around 275,000 pens. The Sgt.
Joe Kelly Freedom Pen Foundation, a nonprofit begun three years ago, is the spiritual successor to the Freedom Pens Project, started in 2004. "A bunch of us just got together and said, 'Let's make pens to send to the troops.' It started out on this internet forum, got people involved from all over the country," McCarley said.
The late Joe Kelly, a retired Army sergeant, fell in love with wood turning after learning about the Freedom Pens Project and meeting McCar.