Crosses for some at the Mega Shelter

Over 1,000 displaced people from south Louisiana whose homes were destroyed or damaged beyond use are currently being housed at the mega shelter just south of Alexandria.  From my inventory I sent about 125 crosses to be shared by some as a sign of hope during the long journey ahead.  I'm so glad to have the opportunity to do this. 

From One Cross Maker to Another

 This batch of crosses is quite special in several ways.

ready to cut and assemble

First, I describe the crosses, then the stories that make them special.  At the end of July 2021, I started by resawing a piece of Spanish cedar from 3/4" to 2 pieces 17/64" after thickness planing.  I planed a piece of cherry to the same thickness.  From this wood I made 36 crosses from Spanish cedar and 8 from the cherry. Vertical pieces 2 1/4", cross pieces 1 1/2", width of 3/8" and stained them with Puritan Pine stain on 8/30. 

stained

First special story - Hurricane Ida

On August 29, Hurricane Ida devastated areas of southeastern Louisiana, exactly 16 years to the day from when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.  A million households were without electricity, many homes, boats, businesses were demolished or severely damaged.  We were fortunate that it didn't touch Alexandria.  Many evacuees were going to be coming to the mega shelter south of the city, so without finishing the crosses with 2 coats of polyurethane, I decided to take them to the shelter and give them to people, similar to what I did in September 2017 after Hurricane Harvey.  As it turned out, there were not many people there yet when I took them down but gave them to a few and left some for workers to put on a table when others came.  When I gave a cross to a teenager who was out front with her grandparents, she told me she was from Jefferson Parish which was hit very hard.  I told her to keep the cross with her throughout the journey ahead, and she said with tears flowing, "I will keep it with me for the rest of my life."  I kept one of those partially finished crosses in my collection.

Second special story - Cross Maker to Cross Maker 

My dear friend and maker of crosses, large and small, passed away at age 97 two years ago.  Milford was a special man, proud of his service in WWII, and one who enjoyed working with wood.  He used a scroll saw to cut out some of his crosses.  One of the favorite crosses he made was a Celtic cross.

Celtic cross by Milford Crumplar

Here is a piece of Spanish cedar that Milford had drawn and drilled holes to cut out on his scroll saw.  From another piece like that, I made the small crosses, and plugged the holes with a dowel.  It was a joy to work with wood that dear Milford was planning to use for a cross before he no longer could work with power tools.

I'm keeping one of these crosses with the dowel plugs, special to me, a question to others.