John Gagnon is a well-known presence at the Kerby Centre.
Found perpetually clad in his woodworker’s apron and massive, toothy grin: if you run into John, he will be the best part of your day, bar none.
John is one of several volunteers who supervise the Kerby Centre woodshop: a place where like-minded folks can come together to work with their hands on a variety of creations.
“It’s like a church, you come here and it’s meditative,” John says. “All skill levels, we all work together to share our knowledge.”
John works on a lot of different things. When we talked, he was working on a homemade crystal radio, a simple radio receiver made with blocks of wood and stripped wire. He breathlessly and excitedly recounts how a similar one would have been used in the trenches of World War One to receive radio transmissions.
But the big project John is known for are his annual holiday creations.
Nine years ago, John started putting together adorable wooden reindeer, maybe about a foot tall. That first year, he made 24 of the pieces and sold them, with all the money going back in to support Kerby Centre and the expensive upkeep of it’s woodshop.
That first year he made 24. The year after that? It was 200.
The year after that? 300.
It’s taken off even further in years since, and now John and his holiday works of art are well-known. Folks as far as the southern United States have ordered his pieces. And in the years since, he’s moved on from reindeer.
Gorgeous mountain scene shelves one year, snowmen another.
Every year it’s a different holiday-themed piece of hand-made woodcraft, headed by John and worked on by a bunch of the folks who come together in the woodshop community.
This year? Christmas trees, painted in a variety of colours: from brushed snow, classic pine-green or even the unpainted and natural beauty of the wood itself.
John has a storied history at the Kerby Centre, not only with his delightful and jolly presence but for his amazing holiday creations. But his story doesn’t begin here. He begins back in 1949 when he was born in Quebec, growing up and choosing to go to vocational school.
“Regular school wasn’t too good for me,” John says. “I wasn’t the kind of guy who was going to learn Shakespeare.”
Over the years, John had a number of different jobs where he plied various trades, always working with his hands.
He was a boiler-operator; a cabinet maker; he even built coffins for people’s final resting places.
But John’s place is now at the Kerby Centre workshop: solving problems that can be fixed with his hands, side-by-side with a community of like-minded folks.
“I’d rather be here than sitting at home watching TV all day,” John says. “We make friends and you meet people from all walks of life.”
“You can’t ask for anything better.”