Popular Woodworking 2008-06 № 169, страница 58

Tillers International: Good Deeds and Good Classes

Tillers International is a non-profit organization that runs the best woodworking school you've never heard of. But woodworking is only part of Tillers' approach to fulfilling its mission statement:

To preserve, study and exchange low-capital technologies that increase the sustain-ability and productivity of people in rural communities.

Executive Director Dick Roosenberg was quick to tell me ofthe many people who make up Tillers, but I also figured out that Tillers International is what it is because of Roosenberg's vision. A Peace Corps volunteer from 1969-1972, Roosenberg spent time in the West African country of Benin. The lesson he carried away was, "teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime," which, while always good-intentioned, often had ineffective execution. For example, emerging countries get little benefit from American-supplied diesel tractors if there's no diesel fuel to power them or spare parts to repair and maintain them. Roosenberg found that an African farmer properly trained to plow with a team of oxen was far more efficient than the same farmer with a shovel, a hoe and a broken tractor rusting in a field.

Tillers (tillersinternational.org or 800-498-2700) offers approximately 50 classes that teach age-old skills including woodworking, blacksmithing, beekeeping and sustainable farming to students from all over the world. At the same time I traveled 70 miles from my home to take a class on Windsor tall stools, there was a young Ecuadorian man, Christian Guerrero, who was completing a Tillers International internship on harnessing animal power.

A man with a mission. Dick Roosenberg, executive director of Tillers International, founded the non-profit organization to teach sustainable skills to people in emerging countries around the world.

More than woodworking. Blacksmithing is among the many old-world - and practical - hand skills that are taught at Tillers.

Tillers International's 450-acre Cook's Mill Learning Center in Scotts, Mich., is the primary site for the education programs. The woodworking school offers instruction in three major categories: skills, tools and timber framing.

Woodworking skills classes include Windsor chairs, wheelwrighting, cartwright-ing, wooden wheelbarrows, coopering and Shaker boxes. Woodworking tool classes include spokeshaves, handplanes, coopering tools, saw sharpening and tools for timber framing. Among the timber-framing classes are an introductory framing course, assembly and joinery and barn raising.

The southern Michigan facility also has a modem 6,000-square-foot house. The massive home has a ski-lodge feel to it, and is efficiently divided to accommodate multiple needs. The lower level serves as the offices. The main floor houses the kitchen and dining area along with a library. The upper levels function as a bed and breakfast to accommodate students who wish to stay overnight.

The word is steadily getting out about the good work of Tillers International. During my visit in January 2008,1 learned that Roy Underhill had spent a week at Tillers the previous summer while filming an episode of "The Woodwright's Shop." The episode has already been broadcast in several areas of the country.

In addition to taking a class at Tillers, another opportunity exists for your visit this summer. On Saturday, July 19th, Tillers International is the location for the Midwest Tool Collectors Area C Meeting. A reasonable registration fee opens up myriad tool treasure possibilities. Look for details at the MTCA web site: mwtca .org. — JS

A fowl endeavor. Tillers also teaches a variety of sustainable farming skills, including how to raise and care for poultry.