GREENVILLE — High school students spent three days turning trees into handcrafted timber-frame projects while learning lessons in teamwork, responsibility, and leadership during the annual Light Foundation Timber Frame Leadership Camp at Chenoweth Trails.
Hosted by Greenville native, three-time Super Bowl champion, and former New England Patriots offensive lineman Matt Light and his wife, Susie, the overnight camp combines traditional timber framing with life lessons designed to prepare young people for challenges beyond the workshop.
Working alongside professional timber framers and adult mentors, campers learned to safely use hand and power tools, read blueprints, and transform standing trees into finished timber-frame structures with precision and collaboration.
For Light, however, the finished project is only part of the experience.
“It’s one of these types of programs where you have to be willing to put some work in,” Light said. “What I love most about the programs we run through the Light Foundation is that there’s a lot of hands-on activities because when we host a program, it typically isn’t about the program; it’s about the message behind the program.”
Light said like the foundation’s annual youth football camp isn’t about creating football players, but about teaching respect, while its youth turkey hunt encourages participants to step outside their comfort zones and build confidence.
Likewise, he said, the timber frame camp isn’t designed solely to produce future carpenters.
“I don’t care if a kid’s a timber framer,” Light said. “I want them to take instruction from somebody who’s done this all their life, brings passion to what they do, and is willing to work with others.”
Campers spent long hours measuring, cutting, and assembling heavy timbers while learning specialized construction techniques. Light said those practical experiences teach skills that extend far beyond woodworking.
“I want these kids to learn how to read a tape measure and do all these other skill sets,” he said. “Whenever you put your hands on real things, put your effort into those things, focus, and put cell phones down, it ends up serving you well, no matter what it is.”
Unlike previous years, campers this summer built timber-frame tables that they were able to take home.
“They get to take this home and take pride in seeing something they worked really hard on,” Light said. “That’s a cool part.”
Because campers use power tools and sharp chisels throughout the program, safety remains a constant emphasis.
“Safety is a huge part of this,” Light said. “Can a kid get hurt here? Of course. Have we had kids get hurt here? We have. But if we stop doing things because of the fear of what could happen, we ignore what actually does happen every single time you do things like this.”
He said the environment also teaches accountability, with campers watching out for one another while they work.
“If one of these kids sees another kid doing something they shouldn’t be doing, they’re going to say something because they don’t want to get hurt either, and they don’t want to see their peer get hurt,” Light said. “Leaders don’t stand by. That’s what we expect, and those are lessons they’ll take with them for the rest of their lives.”
Light credited numerous businesses and volunteers for making the annual camp possible, including JCM Timberworks, Bruns Construction, Ansonia Lumber, Mitch McCabe, and Frank Miller Lumber, which supplied the red oak used for the tabletops.
He also praised the Light Foundation staff and volunteers, including Troy Eden, Brandi Turner, Hayden Lewter, Mike Christian, Brian and Glenn Rehmert, Rodney Denniston, and Nick Mayo, for preparing the camp each year.
For the three-day timber frame camp, the foundation turned its workshop into a woodworking facility, allowing future campers to continue developing practical trade skills.
Light said the handcrafted tables campers completed this year symbolize the tradition of timber framing itself.
“This table represents everything in timber framing,” he said. “There’s tendons, there’s mortises, and there’s pegs, and that is the very nature, the very essence, of a timber framer.”
