Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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| Has been Chester Lane's latest task |
Chester Lane shows a wooden replica desk he made to raise funds for Teamworks International Ministries' school in Tanzania. He made 500 desks which were sold for $25 each-- which is what it costs to have a desk made in Tanzania by local craftsmen. |
Sunday, March 30, 2008
By HOLLY KOZELSKY - Bulletin Accent Editor
Retired shop teacher Chester Lane just outfitted an entire school in desks.
Lane made 500 miniature wooded desks that were sold as a fundraiser for a school in Tanzania, Africa. Each desk he made represented an actual student’s desk that the $25 donation would pay for.
Lane has been a supporter of Teamwork International Ministries, which has headquarters in Martinsville, for at least 20 years. He keeps abreast on news of its mission work through his friend Marian Meyers, who helps the organization. In all, it has established 500 Bible schools across Africa and the United States.
Both he and Meyers attend First United Methodist Church. She now teaches a Sunday school class he had taught for decades.
When she talked about the need for desks at a Teamwork school in Tanzania, Africa, Brian Mateer, the youth leader at church, came up with the fundraising idea.
Before the project began, Meyer brought Lane the design and asked him to make a sample. When she came to see it, 50 miniature desks were assembled and waiting. Thank goodness they were right, she laughed. She sold them, and “he always kept making more” which she was able to keep selling.
Dr. John Chacha, president of Teamwork, visited the school in Ntagatcha, Tanzania, earlier this month. Two hundred desks, all funded from Lane’s efforts, were given to the school on March 10. Three or four students fit at each desk at a time.
Until then, there were only 75 desks for the school of 900 children and eight teachers.
Other funds raised from the sale of the replica desks went toward the school’s roof, Meyers said.
Lane made the desks in his well-equipped and thoroughly stocked cement block shop up the hill in his back yard.
Before his retirement in 1981, Lane taught four decades worth of students, including those who entered the furniture trade, at Martinsville High School. He was the head of the Industrial Arts department, which at one time had 11 teachers. The vocational building at the high school is named in his honor.
“I don’t know how may I taught,” Lane said. “I wished I’d kept record.” He recalled Sam Lyons as one of those students.
Once a month, he would drive to Richmond on an overnight trip to buy surplus war and government materials to use in the classroom, he said. He would spend Friday night in Richmond, go to the Saturday sale and head back to Martinsville, he said.
Lane started working at Martinsville High School before World War II. He met his wife, Betty, in Toledo, Ohio, during the war years and brought her back to Martinsville.
He served two years in the Army on an F-13 airplane, which is a B-29 converted for photography, he explained. His group, Toolson’s Tomcats, flew cameras and gasoline. A large poster of the plane hangs on the garage door of his workshop.
When the war was over, the Lanes built a spacious cinderblock house on Rives Road in Martinsville. The cabinetry and most of the furniture was built by Lane. Betty Lane recalled that he would come in from work and be so busy working at home that he wouldn’t get to bed until 1 a.m.
The Lanes have five children: Annette Lane of High Point, N.C.; Mary Lou Brigman of Richmond; Patrick Lane of Virginia Beach; Sarah Anderson of Atlanta; and Amy Williams of Richmond. They have 11 grandchildren.
His daughter Amy and her son Daniel Williams are “very involved in African missions,” Lane added. Daniel is headed out to a two-year spell in Africa.
“All of our children are Christians. All of the grandchildren are Christians,” he said. “That’s the greatest thing about the whole thing: They’re all saved.”
Lane considers himself most famous for signs that show the name “Jesus.” Meyer guess that at least 1,000 of the signs are in homes around Martinsville. The 101⁄2 by 31⁄4 inch sign “is my best thing I’ve got,” Lane said.
Teamwork International Ministries is located on Brookdale Road in Martinsville. Its phone number is 632-8477, and its Web site is www.teamworkministries.com. |
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