Sisters find their calling in family business

By Molly Ovenden

For sisters Rachel, 23, and Leah Hammond, 32, working in the finishing department at their family company, Morning Star Woodworks, has truly been a pursuit of finding a passion through being faithful.

For Rachel, finding and pursuing a passion for personal training was made possible by holding a steady job throughout college. And for Leah, holding a steady job at Morning Star in a time when she felt uncertain about which path to take in life meant that she actually found passion in working with wood.

Morning Star Woodworks in Cloquet, Minnesota, was established in 1983 by married couple Dan and Denise Hammond. Their primary products are custom cabinetry for kitchens, bathrooms and offices as well as trim and doors.

It was important to the Hammonds for their children to learn life skills — and their business has provided that opportunity to learn how to work hard and learn a trade while they discover what they want to do for a career.

Rachel was nervous about taking on this new experience and working with what seemed to her 17-year-old perspective, “a bunch of old guys.” Since they are best friends, getting to work with her older sister, Leah, put Rachel at ease. It has been six years since Rachel started in the finishing department, sanding, staining and spraying. It’s not always been easy for

Rachel to stay motivated since it’s not a career she’s passionate about, although she is grateful for the opportunity to work hard. Having a steady paycheck while in college was a real blessing. She had flexibility to pursue a degree in personal training, while remaining at Morning Star part time.

The finishing department also led Leah to her own passion. Pursuing a degree in medical science, she realized she didn’t want to go into debt for something for which she had no passion. Leah took her dad’s advice and, with a break from college, worked for her dad. The more she worked in the shop, the more she fell in love with it.

About 13 years later, her passion is woodworking. One coworker took Leah under his wing and mentored her. She also gained an appreciation for her hardworking small-business owner parents. Often her parents work “lots of long hours that people don’t see” and for which they don’t get paid extra. Her passion for the craft propels her to follow suit, and she also puts in several more hours with her side business as a wood artist.

As a wood artist in her side business, Leah Hammond has made many beautiful items like this cribbage board made from maple, cherry and walnut.

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Rachel is a petite woman, much stronger than she appears, earning the nickname “Mini Hulk” in the shop, “because she is so tough,” Leah explained. Sometimes she surprises her male colleagues with how easily she has handled heavy items. In college, when she found her love for resistance training, she found more enjoyment in the workshop because it required her to be active, move her body and build her strength. Rachel never thought that her job would mean she would have to become more masculine in order to succeed. But, for Leah, she felt like she wanted to prove herself that she is capable of doing the work.

“I’m still pretty girly, like I love makeup and dressing up,” she said, and she really hasn’t felt the need to change, either.

Sometimes the sisters feel a little out of place in the shop, being the only women, and it surprises some people when they learn that a woman is the machine operator. But mostly, the feedback has been really positive. They feel empowered to continue doing a good job, wanting to be recognized for

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Dan has encouraged his daughters to stay strong in their personal faith, too. He quotes the verse of the Bible reminding them to work like they are working for God, not for man. Their faith and steady prayer life is what has helped them stay faithful to their jobs at Morning Star when they felt they were living without a purpose because they had not found what they were passionate about for their career yet. Rachel has seen God’s provision for her through answered prayers when she needed a certain class to make her schedule work. She admits that it may look like a coincidence, but she knows that what she needed to happen, did so shortly after she prayed.

They both see God in the materials they use, too. They have an appreciation for art, so working with the natural beauty of trees is really fun for them. Leah said working in the finishing department is “an art form because you’re mixing colors, doing stain matches and you’re making it pretty!”

Rachel likes to see the wood come to life and admits there are a lot of pretty things she would have missed out on if she did not have this job. She loves working with walnut, quarter sawn oak, hickory, and cherry.

“Also, I love how alder, when you stain it, looks really soft,” she said. “I don’t know if I can really name one favorite.”

There’s something really special when you love what you’re doing and you know that you’re doing a good job. And, when a job is installed and the customer is happy with it, it can be really satisfying.

“It’s like the best feeling in the world. It makes it all worth it,” Leah said. D

Molly Ovenden is a Duluth freelance writer.