Tony Kopchinski’s Kronenwetter Woodturning Workshops Train Veterans With Donated Wood

At his Kronenwetter home workshop, veteran woodturner Tony Kopchinski ran a Feb. 3-6, 2025 woodturning session that trained four Purple Heart recipients, some of whom traveled from out of state, using material donations supplied by Bennett Hardwoods in Wausau. The weeklong instruction converted rough blanks into finished pieces and aimed to pair practical lathe skills with therapeutic recovery.

Kopchinski has hosted wounded veterans for more than a decade; the program was reported as running 10 years in a 2022 account and later described as 12 years, and the Man of Honor Society newsletter confirms a February 3-6, 2025 training session. Kopchinski described the work as more than pastime, saying, "It's more than just a hobby," and adding he built his workshop for this purpose: "I actually built this for something like this."

The February training used four lathes and four instructors, with one-on-one coaching as veterans moved from rough cut to finished projects. Financial support for travel and lodging came from the Man of Honor Society, which paid veterans' hotel rooms for the week, and local donors supplied wood and other needs. The Man of Honor newsletter thanked the society for funding and noted the instruction took place in Kopchinski's home workshop.

Participants completed a broad range of projects during the four-day session: burl bowls, natural edge bowls, plates, rolling pins, wooden flowers, a gavel and striker, a beer mug, and game calls. The newsletter reported a concrete outcome: "This therapy produced four life-long friends that are all going to purchase lathes as soon as possible," tying skills training to long-term engagement with the craft.

Veteran voices captured the personal impact of the work. John Chance, wounded in Fallujah on April 18, 2007, said, "This kind of saved my life in a sense," and added woodturning offered a return to making after military duties focused on destruction: "It’s more of the sense of creating things when all you were taught to do in the military was destroy stuff." Michael Engel, injured by a roadside bomb on May 13, 2006, described the shop as calm: "It’s peaceful and quiet to me." Kevin Johnson, who recalled an August 25, 2005 attack in Tikrit, called himself a rookie in Kopchinski's shop despite long membership in the Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation since 2011. Larry Roszell reported severe symptoms before turning to the program: "I was on three antidepressants, I was having PTSD nightmares," and Kopchinski relayed another veteran's turnaround: "I do some woodturning and I sleep like a baby."

Local partners and club activity framed the effort: Bennett Hardwoods donated most of the wood, the Man of Honor Society provided hotel funding and club members documented the work in their newsletter, and additional master craftsmen joined Kopchinski to teach. Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation coordinated participating Purple Heart recipients. The convergence of four veterans, four lathes, four instructors and donor support produced both finished work and reported therapeutic gains, and veterans left planning to bring turning into their daily lives.