No Bad Hair Days

Northwestern Michigan Woodturners support local cancer patients with custom wig stands

More than anything else, Susan Bianchi just wanted to feel like herself again.

A few years ago, Bianchi was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Fighting cancer is already hard enough, but looking in the mirror and seeing a bald head staring back at her just added insult to injury.

“With losing your hair, you lose your identity. Everything changes. You’re already going through so many changes, and losing your hair is just one more thing that you’ve lost control of,” she says. “At that time I was trying to work part time, and I just wanted to blend in as much as possible. I didn’t want to have to explain over and over again what was going on in my life. I just wanted to feel normal.”

A wig allowed her to regain some of that precious normalcy, and a beautiful, handcrafted wooden wig stand carved by someone at the Northwestern Michigan Woodturners (NMW) club helped her keep the wig in great shape and within quick reach.

Beyond the stand’s actual function, it served as a great reminder that there are plenty of people out in the community who were supporting her in the fight against this dreadful disease.

“It means so much. The diagnosis is very frightening, and you’re facing a lot of uncertainty at times,” she says. “[It means a lot] to have someone caring when you’re going through this.”

An Ethos of Sharing

Since 2019, NMW has donated nearly 300 wig stands to patients at Munson Healthcare’s Cowell Family Cancer Center.

“A gift like a wig stand really shows [patients] how much the community is thinking about them,” says Heather Busch, coordinator for health and wellness services at Cowell. “We don’t go a day without discussing how grateful we are for the donations from our greater community, and specifically for the woodturners group.”

NMW is a group of about 90 woodturning enthusiasts in the Grand Traverse region. A woodturner’s signature tool is a lathe, which spins wood as they use hand tools to shape this wood into a variety of items, not unlike a potter uses a potter’s wheel.

“It’s a really neat club,” says Pete Meyer, a longtime club member and particularly skilled craftsman. “The backgrounds are so diverse, but we all have a lathe and an interest in woodworking. So this one thing brings us all together.”

This hobby, turners say, is imbued with a sense of hospitality and support for fellow craftsmen and the community at large. Creating wig stands for people who need them just makes sense, and they’re tremendously proud to do it.

“If you go anywhere in the country and you meet woodturners, as a group, they are the most generous craftsmen I have ever encountered anywhere,” NWM member and retired neurologist Richard Foa says. “The whole ethos of woodturning is to share, and I think this is just an extension of that ethos. It’s sort of built into our craft.”

Giving Back

Dennis Ferguson, a longtime club member, Cedar resident, and retired Ford employee, spoke of his sense of responsibility when asked about why he makes these stands. Ferguson referenced a Hohokam Native American story about a man in a maze toward the end of his life.

“As you go through life, you go through a maze and its circular paths. At the center of the maze is a larger spot that allows you to look at your life, look at what you’ve done and evaluate things before you pass over to the Great Spirit,” he says. “At 85, I feel like I’m at that point in the maze where I can give back, and this allows me to give back and not just take. It’s just a small way that I can support these people as they go through this struggle in their life.”

The woodturners don’t do it to be thanked, of course. But it’s still nice to get those thoughtful notes of gratitude.

“With these things, it really gets me what they do for people,” Meyer says. “I’ve tried to read some of the thank-you cards in front of the club and I get all choked up. I’ve lost a lot of family and friends to cancer, and to feel like you can do something to help [cancer patients] is an incredible feeling.”

The wig stands aren’t the only way this club helps the community at large. Another notable example of their support is that of the Empty Bowls fundraiser for the Northwest Food Coalition. Club members donate beautiful, handcrafted bowls that are used to raise money for the coalition.

Beautiful and Functional

While the wig stands have to be the same basic shape, these wood turners each impart their own twist on the stands, adding to the charm of this endeavor. Across nearly 300 stands, no two are exactly alike.

Busch says women at the cancer center are allowed to pick out their own stand from whatever is currently on hand at their wig boutique. It’s all part of the center’s wig program, which helps cover the costs of wigs in the event they are not covered by insurance.

“Women are often very surprised that beyond the fact that they will receive a wig that the wig stand is also a gift,” she says. “It’s something they can take with them on their journey and their healing process.”

Ultimately, Busch says, these wig stands are tools for empowerment.

“Women have shared with me that that instead of hiding that wig away, having it be something to feel bad about, they want that wig on display to know that they have something that can help them feel themselves again,” she says. “They can feel like themselves. They can feel beautiful. They can have their confidence back.”

Bianchi is thrilled with her “gorgeous” stand, which allowed her to clean and care for her wig without worrying about a flimsy stand crumpling underneath.

“It doesn’t look medicinal—it looks like a piece of art,” she says. “They’re sturdy, they hold the shape of the wig. The wig just looks beautiful sitting on it.”

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