“They’re mavericks.” “Salt of the earth kind of people.” “Ingenious design work.” “Beautiful, beautiful furniture.” “A passionate crew of people.” “Mike is the kind of person who works really hard at trying to help other people...it’s time for us to try to help him.”

Those are a few of the ways customers and members of our community have described the people and work of The Strong Oaks Woodshop.  For years, we’ve carefully dismantled the dilapidated, forgotten structures sitting along America’s highways, languishing in her fields and valleys.  We take that wood and dream up new life for it in the pieces of furniture we create.  We were growing and expanding, looking to add dozens of jobs over the next several years.

That all changed last Saturday night.





Our beautiful facility in Front Royal, VA burned to the ground.  It is a total loss.  By the grace of God no one was injured.  But everything we poured our hearts and souls into disappeared within those flames.

Our primary concern is our employees, who must wait while we scramble to assemble the pieces of production once more.  Many of them have children, families, homes to pay for—and we’re doing everything we can to get them working again as soon as humanly possible.  We’re borrowing tools from friends and vendors, finding sheds and garages to keep our hands going, scraping up every penny we can find to keep our company moving forward.  The outpouring of support has left us grateful, humbled, and more determined than we thought possible.

We’ve started this page primarily because many have asked how they can help.  Specifically, it will take weeks if not months before our insurance can assist with our rebuilding.  While our policy will cover much of the equipment and material losses, it cannot even begin to address our irreplaceable, utterly unique inventory of lumber.  Boards we’d salvaged, de-nailed, planed, and worked life back into.  These are not things one can simply go to the lumber yard and find.

We don’t know exactly how much we’ll need to get back onto our feet again, and we sincerely appreciate anything you’re able to give.  Our pledge to you is this: we’re not going to stop working for our clients, our workers, our friends and our community.  We are The STRONG Oaks Woodshop.  And we are rebuilding.

Thank you.  We’ll keep updating as we continue to restore and rebuild.

http://strongoakswoodshop.com/