Maplewoodshop News November 2025
The Business of Woodworking Education: Intentional Design of Inclusive Employment Thrives at Maplewoodshop
The din of sanding, drilling, hammering, and trucks (and sometimes even meowing) is more than just the rhythm of production and promoting woodworking programs in schools across the country. It’s also the sound of inclusion. For the past three years, 20-year-old Claude Michaud has been a proud member of the Maplewoodshop team, contributing his growing building, problem solving, and motor skills to a work environment that champions the value of woodworking in STEM, vocational education, the arts, and community.
Claude is a Columbia High School graduate, a varsity athlete in both cross country and swimming, and an orchestra cellist. Before joining Maplewoodshop in 2022, he built early experience working at a local coffee shop and continues to serve his community today as an Essex County election poll worker — a role that underscores his sense of civic responsibility and commitment to public service.
Claude is currently attending a boarding school in Scarsdale NY, where he continues his academic and personal development. Since joining the woodshop team, he has flourished in an authentic employment setting where he'll continue to grow his skills during school breaks. His responsibilities at Maplewoodshop have steadily expanded — from assembling hold-downs and organizing supplies to mastering equipment like an orbital sander, pallet jack, gram scale, mag switch, kraft tape machine, and power drill. Most recently, he learned silk-screening techniques for woodworking boards and tool chests, expanding both his confidence and craftsmanship.
Claude’s contributions are practical, essential, and meaningful. He starts his work day by independently retrieving the shop’s mail, packs wood cabinets for shipment to schools, maintains inventory and even takes responsibility for feeding the shop’s two cats, Ernesto and Flo. These consistent tasks reflect not only his reliability but also the trust that Maplewoodshop's manager Michael and I place in him.
But Claude’s experience at Maplewoodshop is about more than tasks; it’s about connection and community. He greets coworkers with a smile, begins each shift by asking Michael “How can I help?” and takes genuine pride in collaborating side-by-side with his teammates. For Claude, earning a paycheck means more than just money, it represents independence, interdependence, equitable access, and a rightful place in the workforce. Maplewoodshop’s commitment to inclusive employment embodies the woodworking community’s core values: teamwork, skill-building, and belonging. Much like each board in a project contributes strength, stability, and structure, every individual in the shop enhances the collective whole.
Claude’s journey illustrates that the craft of woodworking is not only about shaping hewn, it’s also about shaping opportunity. At Maplewoodshop, inclusion is not merely an idea; it’s a daily practice and Claude stands proudly among the team as a living testament to what becomes possible when inclusion is embedded into an organization's foundation.