Woodworking hobbyists use their spare time to build desks for kids learning at home

In September, Ilia Shadrin watched his daughter Addison, a first-grader at Riverside Central Elementary, work through another year of distance learning. He saw some of her classmates on the group call, trying to learn in houses that can’t be properly set up for school: without a set space to learn, kids were working wherever they had space.

That image sparked an idea: what if his hobby could solve that problem for some students?

“Really, I wanted to figure out what to do with some extra time in quarantine,” said Shadrin. “I love woodworking, and I saw an article about a Florida man making desks for kids. I thought ‘wow, this could be a really cool thing,’ and got to it.”

Since then, the project has grown past his early goals.

Shadrin, a third-year internal medicine resident at Mayo Clinic, built 10 desks over the fall months, linking with Riverside principal Matt Ruzek and site facilitator Lida Casper to get them in the hands of kids that needed them most. As he was finishing his work, he told another medical resident about the project… and as luck would have it, Shadrin was about to meet someone with the capacity to take his idea up a notch.

“It was serendipitous that one of my co-residents said ‘oh, my husband loves woodworking,’” said Shadrin. “She said I should come over and try to figure something out, and that it might be a match made in heaven.”

The Memphis Transplant

The husband-in-question is Michael Dean, a Memphis native who uprooted to Rochester this past summer, following his fiance to the Clinic. Woodworking is in Dean’s blood — in fact, he spent his adolescence sweeping floors and learning the fundamentals of the trade at the family business, Bartlett, TN’s The Woodwork Shop.

Upon settling in Rochester this August, Dean says it was crucial for his family to choose a house with a third-bay garage, specifically for setting up his own personal wood shop. By November, the shop was ready for action, but Dean says it hadn’t been used much until he heard about Shadrin’s project.

“Kaylie [Michael’s fiance] told me about Ilia in late November, and I said ‘give him my number, I bet we could use the garage as the base of operations,’” said Dean. “I was happy to provide the space — it was a no-brainer.”

Since then, the duo has churned out 30 2-foot by 3-foot desks for Riverside students, with dozens more families and teachers requesting desks. Ruzek, Riverside’s principal, has delivered some to kids, and he says their faces immediately light up — and their joy carries over into classwork.

“Kids are decorating the desks, and really taking pride in it,” said Ruzek. “I love popping into a class meeting and seeing that they’re sitting at a desk that they are proud of and appreciate. It’s truly amazing how this has worked out.”

‘I wanted to put his tools to good use’

Shadrin and Dean haven’t charged a penny for their efforts, thanks to some major cash and in-kind donations. A fellow Riverside parent who works as a manager at Lowe’s came through with a lumber donation, topped off by a $400 DeWalt table saw — no charge for anything. For the next round of desks, Redeemer Church — just two blocks from Riverside — will cover the lumber costs.

The two can now assemble a desk in roughly 30 minutes, thanks to Dean’s extensive equipment set-up. Shadrin says his original vision was just to build 10 desks — but meeting Dean completely changed the game.

“I’ve got some equipment and a little workshop, but nothing like what Michael has,” said Shadrin. “His tools took it to the next level. It’s made it so much easier to do what we want to do.”

Most of Dean’s collection though, wasn’t originally his. Instead, they’re marked for his older brother, David, who helped run his family’s woodworking shop. In January 2020, he passed away after a years-long bout with cancer, and Michael inherited the bulk of David’s tool set.

Now, almost exactly a year later, David’s tools are in Michael’s hands, creating desks for kids in a city he barely knows. Dean admits he hasn’t explored Rochester yet — “I don’t even know where Riverside is,” he said with a laugh — yet he has already made a positive impact on dozens of kids here.

The reasoning behind his decision to help out was simple: he had the space, he had the time, and if David were in the same situation, he would do the exact same thing.

“It’s cathartic for me to do this,” said Dean. “My brother had kids, and of course, they’re my nieces and nephews. I wanted to put his tools to good use, because he definitely would have done something like this.”

Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.