— Power of 2 —
Summer Stephenson
sstephenson@intracoastalrealty.com
910.279.6234
Susan Paulson
spaulson@intracoastalrealty.com
910.233.7970
110 Seven Oaks Court
Boat Slip • $675,000
561 Garden Terrace Dr., #104
Village at Mayfaire • $285,000
11B East Greensboro Street
Wrightsville Beach • $599,000
579 Lune Court
Leland • $194,900
14.45 acre tract
2101 Boatswain Place
Landfall • $189,900
56
WBM june 2011
reduced
0 Odyssey Drive
Landfall • $1,185,000
Under
Contract
“I was always around stuff getting
built,” Pierce says. “In high school I
took a shop class and enjoyed it, but
it wasn’t until I was in law school that
I took up woodworking as a serious
hobby. It’s what I did for relaxation.”
While practicing law in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, Pierce began taking
Friday afternoons off to work with foster
teens, teaching them how to build
things. He also held a summer camp
with inner city kids where he taught
them how to build go-karts.
“It gave them a skill that no one else
they knew had, and it was a huge selfesteem
builder,” Pierce remembers.
After his father died in 1996, Pierce
gave up practicing law and moved to
Wilmington where his mother lived.
While teaching part time at Cape Fear
Community College, he launched a
pilot program in 1997 at the Jervay
Communities, a former public housing
development off Dawson Street.
A handful of students participated,
building doghouses, scooters and skateboards
in the community room.
“The thing I remember most,”
Pierce says, “are all the other kids
hanging around outside, looking in
the windows yelling, ‘Let us in! When
can we do that?’ I kept thinking about
it and wound up with a small grant in
1999 which enabled me to launch Kids
Making It full time.”
Building the Reality
Today, Kids Making It is open seven
days a week—weekdays after school
and part time on weekends. The fullfledged
woodworking shop is equipped
with power tools, an art room and a
retail store where youth learn vocational
and entrepreneurial skills. The
participants receive 100 percent profit
from the sale of the items they make.
In addition to the birdhouses, bowls
and custom-made ballpoint Cross
pens, the walk-up Jacobi Warehouse
storefront, at 15 Water Street, retails
salt and pepper grinders, storage boxes,
stools, custom signs and other one-of-a
kind items.
Students new to the program learn
safety rules first, work with hand tools