Chapter Stalwarts - Cape Cod Woodturners

Dave Arnone

Dave Arnone is a lifelong educator and woodworker who moved to Cape Cod 8 years ago. He quickly moved into being an active club participant and has morphed into being a true leader in our club on the Board of Directors. As chair of the nominating committee, he spent countless hours leading his committee in exploring and vetting officers for key positions. He has created and taught new educational programs to better the skills of members through mentoring and instruction. Through his efforts, our club has been able to mentor young people in our community who are at risk. He has turned his personal shop with multiple lathes into a gathering and learning place for member sessions and has a plethora of tools which he generously loans to others to try. Dave has chaired exhibits of members’ work in the community both for more seasoned and emerging turners.

During the last year with COVID-19, he has become the tech guru for our meeting Zoom sessions, hosting our demonstrations with 3 camera views and all of the production and editing capabilities needed. He teaches turning at a local cultural center and, as chair of our membership committee, has encouraged many of those students to participate and join our club.

He visits members’ shops and provides guidance in setting up lathes, dust collections systems, and bandsaws. He opens up his shop to mentor members in their specific turning needs. Dave never stops looking for ways to add more value to being a member of the club, even when membership already offers so much. His participation, educational insights, and love of woodturning bring so much to all members of our club.

Clarke Buchanan

Clarke is a long-time member of the Club committed to making a positive impact on the members of the Club. He successfully served as Club President for eight years where he had an enormous yet quiet impact by engaging, mentoring and invigorating other Club members.

He contributes wood for raffles at the monthly meetings, plans the Club’s annual picnic and holiday party and coordinates occasional outdoor wood swaps despite Covid. Clarke is a proficient demonstrator, camera operator, sawdust session host and mentor. He is active with the club serving as the Immediate Past President and managing and distributing bulk supplies for the Club. Clarke’s persistent inspiration for us all to be better turners and his generosity with his time for other Club members has set him apart as a stalwart member of the Club.

— Denis Casaubon

Deb Chapin

Deb began her adventures in woodturning after a career in the US Air Force Nurse Corps as a nurse practitioner and as a civilian diabetes educator. She had done some flatwork but turning was a new interest for her. She joined Cape Cod Woodturners in 2017 and soon began to help in multiple aspects of the club. She has been an active member of our Women in Turning group, frequently mentoring others during our gatherings, sharing her skill and enthusiasm for her craft. She has hosted Turning on Your Inspiration gatherings at her shop, working with small WIT groups on collaborative projects.

In 2019 she assumed the role of secretary and newsletter editor on the Board for the club, working to elevate the newsletter by learning Inkscape to update the format of the newsletter. She is an active contributor and assists in organization of the club December Show and Sale exhibits at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod. She has been an assistant instructor for the club’s Turn and Learn program and also represents the club as a mentor for classes in woodturning at public classes at the Cultural Center.

She was the initial organizer of a WIT fundraiser for the Race Point Lighthouse Association which ultimately raised $900 for Race Point. During the pandemic, she was an active contributor to our COVID subcommittee, sharing her calm advice during an unsettled time. Deb invites others to share in her love of woodturning with her welcoming, positive input at Board and club meetings, workshops, and in personal interactions. She is a consistent worker for the club, contributing on multiple levels to the success of our club.

Mike Grady

Mike joined Cape Cod Woodturners in 2010. During his successful careers as a guitarist and an airplane pilot, he had done flatwork projects and was comfortable with power tools. His new adventures into the world of woodturning began after his retirement and move to Cape Cod. He quickly made his mark evident within the club with his patient, practiced perfection of technique, form, and finishing of turned projects. Although he considers himself to be a technician, rather than a creator of functional art, anyone who admires his turnings will tell him otherwise. His attention to detail in his turning, teaching, mentoring, and advice is evident in all interactions with Mike.

He has been active in multiple aspects of the club. In addition to being a frequent demonstrator, he was program chair for seven years and then served another year on the program committee. As chair, he planned all of the monthly demonstrations, one to two day professional demonstrations, and our local Demonstration Days. When Mike was new to the Board of Directors, he agreed that the club members deserve a top-notch turning demonstration at every meeting. As program chair, Mike made sure that the members got what they deserved, meeting after meeting, year after year. After only a one-year hiatus, he is back on the current program committee.

He has mentored informally and formally through every cycle of CCW’s Turn and Learn program. He partners with other instructors on the creation of the curriculum for the program. Mike represents the club through assisting with several woodturning classes at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod. His gentle, approachable manner draws people to him for advice and critique. As the club turned to a pre-recorded format for demonstrations during the pandemic and now our hybrid format, Mike stepped forward to assist with the video recording of demonstrations and meetings as an integral part of the AV team.

He has participated in several club community activities including Marstons Mills Village Day with woodturning demonstrations and Rise and Shine at the Cultural Center, a woodturning experience for high school students who are at risk. He is a prolific turner with multiple turnings for display at our December public show and sale exhibits. Additionally, Mike has turning sales at Great Gifts, the Chatham Craft Show, and shows in Western MA. He is still very active also in the Western MA club.

Robin McIntyre

Robin has been an especially tireless contributor to the Club and its members ever since she joined. While serving as Club Secretary for ten years, she compiled the monthly meeting minutes, took pictures of Show and Tell items, published the monthly club newsletter, started a Women in Turning (WIT) group and continues to mentor women who are new to turning. Robin chaired the Lighthouse Project, raising over $1000.00 for Race Point Lighthouse. She captured the Lighthouse Project in an AAW article.

After stepping down as secretary, Robin then assumed the position of Program Chair for two years where she led a committee approach that provided excellent demonstrations and introduced member surveys. In addition to her Programming Chair responsibilities, Robin stepped in to perform as the Club’s interim secretary for almost a year while the Secretary was out sick. Robin has also been instrumental in monitoring COVID status in our community to stay current with safety guidelines for keeping our members safe. The combination of Robin’s egoless, welcoming personality, strong turning skills and untiring and creative contributions to the Club have made Robin a stand-out and stalwart asset to the Club.

— Denis Casaubon

Marc Sitkin

Marc has been a longtime woodworker and added woodturning to his repertoire. He moved to Cape Cod after he retired from a successful career as an advertising photographer and graphics designer. He discovered Cape Cod Woodturners as an outlet for his creative endeavors. Despite his quieter presentation, Marc is a keen observer who gathers information and insights before offering his input. He organized club demonstrations for several years at an antique tool day with 2-3 club lathes sharing our love of woodturning with the community.

He has offered his expertise in all matters IT and photography at many levels of club activity. He was the master mind behind a complete overhaul of the club website in 2020, helping other members learn to selectively maintain their own sections while working as the webmaster. In June 2023, the website won first place in the AAW website contest. He developed a new newsletter format using Inkscape and taught the newsletter editor to use the new program, elevating the presentation of the club.

Since 2020, he has maintained the gallery of club photographs from our Show and Tell and Coffee Hour presentations. During the pandemic, he photographed 150+ turnings for a hybrid Show and Sale at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod for an on-line presentation. He has offered advice and equipment tips on multiple occasions to individuals on photography techniques and editing. He was a demonstrator in 2023 for the club, wowing everyone with his segmenting demonstration via video with in-person examples and commentary. Marc has enhanced our club in multiple ways and we are pleased to nominate him for the Stalwart Award.