July 5, 2004: Headlines: COS - Dominica: Woodworking: The Oregonian: In a four-year stint on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, Robert Schwoeffermann worked as an accountant for a co-op of 30 Rastafarians who were magicians on the lathe and jigsaw

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Dominica: Peace Corps Dominica: The Peace Corps in Dominica: July 5, 2004: Headlines: COS - Dominica: Woodworking: The Oregonian: In a four-year stint on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, Robert Schwoeffermann worked as an accountant for a co-op of 30 Rastafarians who were magicians on the lathe and jigsaw

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-141-157-22-73.balt.east.verizon.net - 141.157.22.73) on Tuesday, July 06, 2004 - 8:08 pm: Edit Post

In a four-year stint on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, Robert Schwoeffermann worked as an accountant for a co-op of 30 Rastafarians who were magicians on the lathe and jigsaw

In a four-year stint on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, Robert Schwoeffermann worked as an accountant for a co-op of 30 Rastafarians who were magicians on the lathe and jigsaw

In a four-year stint on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, Robert Schwoeffermann worked as an accountant for a co-op of 30 Rastafarians who were magicians on the lathe and jigsaw

Summer jobs? Summer home, summer not
Tuesday, July 06, 2004

T he company marquee -- a white sheet announcing "Chairs For Sale" draped at the end of the driveway -- may not comply with the city's snooty sign ordinance.

The jazz playing on the radio in the garage may be a little too mellow to energize the assembly line.

But Hawthorne Chairs -- a summer business operated by three recent graduates of Lincoln High School and a sophomore at the University of Oregon -- is an encouraging reminder that some young men and women are making far better use of the season than scooping ice cream or trying to stay alert at the top of the lifeguard stand.

The quartet -- brothers Ty and Tamu Schwoeffermann, Tristan Wagner and Andrew Reder -- have been there. They've mowed lawns, spread bark dust, clocked in for those tedious shifts at Pioneer Place, and refereed the shallow end of the Mount Scott pool.

Not this summer. This summer they're building love seats, porch swings and Adirondack chairs in the Schwoeffermanns' garage in Southeast Portland. If they haven't yet broken any sales records, the experience and the memories will, I suspect, enrich them for years to come.

Adirondack chair construction is a tradition at the Schwoeffermann house. The brothers were schooled in woodworking by their father, Robert, who acquired the trade when he served in the Peace Corps in the late 70s.

In a four-year stint on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, Robert worked as an accountant for a co-op of 30 Rastafarians who were magicians on the lathe and jigsaw.

"They could simply look at a piece of furniture, then turn around and make it," Robert said. That was a precious gift after Hurricane David leveled the island in 1979. "There was," Robert said, "a huge demand for furniture."

Is there a similar demand in Portland 25 years later?

"Obviously, this isn't a necessity," said Andrew Reder, the de facto marketing guru at Hawthorne Chairs. "You have to figure out why people want to buy stuff and what appeals to people. I'm learning how sales work, if only through trial and error."

Trials and errors are relatively painless in the company of friends. The Schwoeffermanns -- Ty is starting his second year at Oregon and Tamu will be a freshman this fall at Northeastern University in Boston -- brought Tristan and Andrew on board this summer because they wanted to bulk up their business model and profit margin.

Up to this point, the profits haven't matched the camaraderie. The guys at Hawthorne Chairs have figured out you can't sell Adirondack chairs going door-to-door, and you don't sell em at Saturday Market. Assembling these puppies is much easier than finding them homes.

But these are creative, motivated young men -- Andrew is headed to UCLA and Tristan chose the Honors College at Oregon State over MIT -- and their growth curve is impressive. They've already figured out that Robert Schwoeffermann was on to something when he said, "Once you learn how to work for yourself, you won't want to work for someone else."

Standing on his front porch Wednesday, Robert nodded toward the action in the garage and said it was primordial: "Men in their cave with their music and their tools."

That's not all these teenagers have. They have power screwdriver calluses on their hands, the sun on their backs and cedar dust in their hair. They have a Web site (www.hawthornechairs.com). They have jazz on the radio and a lunch date at Sewickly's. Better yet, they have friends and classmates who are so envious of this adventure that they're begging to be allowed a turn with the sander or the wood stain.

One of these days, Hawthorne Chairs is bound to experience the inevitable sales boom. And when that happens?

"Then we'll start hiring our friends," Tamu said. "At slave-labor prices."

Steve Duin: 503-221-8597; Steveduin@aol.com; 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201




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Story Source: The Oregonian

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Dominica; Woodworking

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