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Valley Forge, Pennsylvania hasn’t seen this much anticipation since George Washington’s troops waited for Spring to come in 1778. Yes, the tools were nice and the day’s presentations informative, but in the back of every attendee’s mind was the championship competition set for the Saturday night banquet at Woodworking in America. A hush fell over the crowd as the stage was set and the competitors introduced.
Take a look at the contenders and you’ll see that one looks confident, one looks nervous, and one looks downright scared. Kari Hultman’s look of trepidation might be from the chicken or the chocolate cake, but it might also be coming from the fact that we forgot to tell her when the finals would take place. Her thoughts of wandering over to the Hand Tool Olympics booth when she was good and ready were dashed when she was called to the stage.
Moments before the competition was to begin, Heather Griffin of our conference staff, and Kari compared their bits. Earlier in the day, Heather revealed that she had a lubricating trick up her sleeve, but we saw no evidence of spitball tactics being employed by any of the three. It was a clean fight and a fair one.
After a brief debate over whether the contest would be head to head or against the clock it was decided to give them plenty of room and Megan was selected to go first. Would she taste the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat?
Somehow we neglected to tell Megan that the event was being projected on large video screens so that all could see. After a moment or two of admiring her image on screen and displaying her impressive vocabulary, she got down to business, the bit began to whirl and the chips began to fly.
Her official time was a bit slower than her best time in training, but in the end her enthusiasm carried the day. The presentation of her prize was delayed until Sunday morning, when it was awarded in an impromptu ceremony held in Chuck Bender’s Acanthus Workshop booth.
That’s a rather famous cap you see at the bottom of the photo, and in an upcoming post, we’ll share the saintly photographer’s contribution to the evening’s festivities.
