During the last half of 2009, the Bell Woodturning Club discussed the possibility of starting a training program for local youths. We contacted the Gilchrist County 4-H agent about determining if there was an interest in wood turning among the local youths. His response was very positive. We proceeded to develop a program for teaching wood turning skills. We applied for a grant from the AAW and was approved. We located a building to hold our training sessions and started classes February 28, 2010.

We started with six students and had meetings twice a month. We considered the program successful but as we got to the summer months, attendance suffered because of vacations and other conflicts with other events. We stopped the classes during August due to low attendance.

We reassessed our program to look for a better way of presenting the information. We decided to hold a one week program from June 6-10, 2011. The reasoning was that we would have better attendance if we held all day classes for five days in a row. We put our program together, secured a location and applied for a grant to help with expenses. The AAW approved our request.