b y kathy tirrell
volunteering
Elkins shares time and talent When some people retire, they are content to stay home and sit on the couch watching TV, or maybe at the kitchen table piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. Not Dan Elkins. At 89 years old, though he’s retired and now using a cane, he’s still an active member of the community, serving as a volunteer tour guide at the Audubon Society’s Environmental Education Center in Bristol and a woodcarving instructor at the Barrington Senior Center. For the past 10 years, Elkins has been teaching a free woodcarving class at the senior center. It meets every Thursday afternoon, from 1 to 3, all year long. The number of students varies, from only two or three to as many as 14. He says about six or seven have been coming regularly. One might think a beginning wood carver would start out making something easy to carve. But not so, according to Elkins. “What I teach is care and feeling of the tools,” he said. “I let them decide what to carve. They can do anything they want.” He told a story about one of his female students who is a painter and artist. He said she came to his class and told him she wanted to carve a Great Horned Owl. He gave her some wood and she worked on it for a year or so. “She brought in the finished carving and it was beautiful. I told her now it has to have a habitat. I gave her some driftwood. She fixed it up and it was gorgeous.” Elkins holds a piece of wood in his hands on this particular day, getting ready to carve an angel. He rests a photo on the table to use as a guide. “I took this piece of wood off of an old umbrella,” he explained.
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It’s a love affair that started when Elkins was just a boy. “I started when I was 6 years old in 1929,” he said. “My father gave me a broken pocket knife. During the summer when school was out we had nothing to do during the Depression. A
group of us kids had our pocketknives and we walked around Queens picking up peach pits. We’d get half a dozen or so and sit on the curb rubbing them until they were smooth. We’d make little baskets, leave room for a handle and sell them for a penny each.” He has created a vast array of carvings, including Pilgrims and Indians, bears and buffaloes, monks and men, Santa Claus and his reindeer, and even an entire circus complete with clowns, acrobats, lions, giraffes, bears and more on display at the Children’s Museum on South Street in Providence. “Dan’s work is whimsical and playful – perfect for the Children’s Museum,” said Janice O’Donnell, executive director of the museum. “He delights in sharing his work with kids and their grown-ups. He’s been a great friend to the Museum.” Elkins also volunteers as a tour guide at the Audubon Society’s Environmental Education Center, a natural history museum and aquarium. Ac-
cording to director Anne DiMonti, Elkins has been an exhibit hall guide since they opened 12 years ago. In addition, he was named Volunteer of the Year on Oct. 24, 2010 at the Audubon Society’s annual meeting. “Dan still volunteers for us every Friday morning,” said DiMonti. “He’s a wonderful man.” Elkins has lived in Barrington for the past 24 years after retiring in L.A., where he was president of a moving company. Previously, he was in the Merchant Marines and is a Navy veteran. He and his wife just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary this past September. They have a son and daughter, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. When it comes to his volunteer work, it’s the only way Elkins would spend his retirement. “I like the kids and the grown-ups,” he said. “I’m a people person.”
November 2012