Wood magic

By Staff
Pace's barbecue cart snags state award
Kim West
BELGREEN – Fifteen-year-old Kimberly Pace has turned a lifelong interest in woodworking into an award-winning hobby.
Pace, a rising sophomore at Belgreen High School, represented Alabama at the Junior Beta Club national convention in Myrtle Beach, S.C. June 14-17 after carving out first place in woodworking at the state convention held in March.
Guidelines for the woodworking contest stipulate that entries must be made by scratch, and students aren't allowed to use store-bought kits to complete their projects.
Pace's winning entry was a fully-functional barbecue cart she built from pine, plywood, broom handles and other scrap wood donated by her grandfather, Kenny Pace. The cart, which includes a drawer, handle and wheels, measures nearly 27 inches wide, 44.25 inches long and 35.5 inches tall.
"I've been into woodworking since I was a little kid, and my grandpa, dad and uncles all work at the Waverly Homes trailer plant," said Pace, a first-year member of Beta Club, an academic organization for students with A or B averages. "Nearly everything my papaw Kenny has in his house are things he has built, and I've looked up to him since I was little."
Pace said the idea for the cart came from another hobby she and her grandfather share.
"We were sitting around trying to figure out what I could build (for the competition), and we came up with a barbecue cart because we both love to grill, and we were having to come in and out all the time," Pace said. "There's a place on the cart where you can put ketchup on the sides, and you can set meat down on the top. You can also put charcoal on the bottom of the cart, and there's a little rack for your towels."
Beta Club members were allowed to work in pairs but Pace didn't have a student partner. She completed the project in two weeks, with minimal help from her grandfather.
"We both cut out pieces of wood together, but I basically did most of the work and sanded the whole thing," said Pace, who took a shop course at Belgreen as an eighth grader. "Mr. (Wes) Hester, my Beta adviser, said it would be a whole lot better if we used nothing but wood – everything we used for the cart was wood except for the screws."
Pace said the national competition was more competitive because it had 20 entries from across the U.S., compared to about a dozen statewide entries at the Alabama convention.
"I liked the church that won second place nationally because it was really out there and very detailed – it even had doorknobs," Pace said. "If I had the chance to build the barbecue cart again, I don't know what I'd do differently. I would maybe focus more on the design, and maybe even carve Beta into the wood.
"Going to nationals in South Carolina was a great experience, and I really enjoyed meeting new people and seeing what kids my age could build."
Pace is the daughter of Kenny and Sabrina Pace and has a brother, Andrew, 12, and a sister, Clarissa Thompson, 15.