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It’s another typical Tuesday morning at the Pleasanton Senior Center for Ed Heskett — out in the sun with his knife as he slowly makes these surgical incisions on a small piece of wood.
Heskett has been a woodcarver for the past 18 years, and is one of many who fill up the woodshop inside the senior center every Tuesday and Friday.
The tight-knit group of seniors make everything from geographical patterns on pieces of wood like Heskett to larger-scale models like hilarious opening scenes from the 2017 movie “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” with Rocket telling baby Groot not to push the button.
“With woodcarving, you sort of sneak up on it,” Ken Morgan, a Pleasanton resident and vice president of the Tri-Valley Woodcarvers, told the Weekly.
Morgan, who was the artist behind the “Guardians” model, said the club has been meeting at the senior center ever since 1997 and that as someone who has personally been with the club for 24 years, he has seen the direct benefit it has on seniors.
“A lot of what people are doing is keeping in touch with each other,” Morgan said.
Zack Silva, city recreation supervisor, told the Weekly that he also believes the main benefit the program has for seniors is socializing.
“These folks come in here every Tuesday, and it’s the same folks and they’re sharing what they’re working on, they’re getting tips … and I think that social benefit is huge,” he said. “It’s a tight space so they’re sitting next to each other. It’s pretty close, and so they’re able to learn from each other.”
Morgan said the camaraderie and having that space at the senior center where they can meet every week and catch up really means a lot to them.
But it’s not just the social benefits that draw in seniors from all across the Tri-Valley, and even across the East Bay, to the woodcarver program at the center.
Rob Motal, a 74-year-old from San Ramon, said he’s been retired for 10 years and making little wooden badges for Boy Scouts in the area is a way for him to have a sense of purpose in life.
He said for him, it also brings him a sense of peace.
“When you’re woodcarving, the rest of the world evaporates,” Motal said. “There’s no worries. There’s nothing that’s bothering you. So it just gives me that real special inner space that I value.”
But apart from the community that the various Tri-Valley Woodcarvers club members have created inside the senior center, many of the people simply like the physical benefits woodcarving have for them.
“I think seniors can enjoy this because it’s something that doesn’t require a lot of tools, you can carry it with you, you can go and do it wherever you want,” Motal said. “It’s a way of enjoying your hands, helping with your hand-eye coordination … it does all of that.”
Morgan said one of the main benefits for people, specifically for seniors, is being able to stay busy with their hands.
“First couple of weeks … your hands might be sore,” he said. “But then once you start doing it more and more, you’re keeping the muscles there.”
Morgan also said the precision it takes to stay focused keeps their minds sharp as well.
“You can’t worry about world politics or other stuff because if you do, your hand will pay the price,” he said. “You need to stay focused and in the moment.”
And the best part, Morgan said, is that anyone at any age can do it.
“All they need is a desire to try it and we sit them down and get them carving,” Morgan said.
Gary Eaves, a Fremont resident who has been with the club for seven years, explained how he first got started with making a simple sea otter out of a block of wood.
Eaves, who had chances to get into woodcarving in the past but didn’t do so until recently, said he was a bit nervous until he found the program at the Pleasanton center and the club members who gave him all the tools and instruction he needed to get the fundamentals down.
“By the time you finish (the otter), you’ve developed some skills,” he said. “You’re not an expert … (but) it’s the fundamentals.”
Darlene Mellquist, a Walnut Creek resident who recently moved to the area, also said that once someone learns how to carve wood, it’s one of those things they can do in the backyard or the porch.
She picked the skill up four years ago. When she moved to the area last year, she attended the Tri-Valley Woodcarvers’ annual show — which took place this past weekend — where she met others from the club and began joining them at the center.
Mellquist just learned a new technique where she makes deeper cuts into the wood that create intricate patterns and shapes on a walking stick that she recently completed.
“It’s all practice,” she said. “If you’re not having fun, don’t do it.”
In order to practice, or even pick it up as a beginner, seniors can drop in to one of the time slots on Tuesday or Friday at the center on Sunol Boulevard. For Pleasanton residents, there is a $3 drop in fee; for non-residents, it’s $3.50.
Silva said the center collaborates with the woodcarver club volunteers to offer beginner training sessions and other programs like soap carving — which shows the same techniques just on a different material — and wood-burning.
Eaves added that once beginners get through that first fundamental project, the sky’s the limit for whatever folks want to work on next.
“Show us what you want to do and we will help you do it,” he said.
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