Chair weaving company north of Boston gives people with disabilities a chance to be creative
PEABODY - There's a chair weaving company north of Boston that's giving people with disabilities the opportunity to be creative and make something beautiful.
The Heritage Caning Company in Peabody has been caning chairs for more than 60 years. It's run by the Northeast Arc, which provides jobs for people with disabilities.
"It's all about experience and time and perseverance and patience. You learn an incredible amount of patience doing this," caning and business product manager Gabrielle Burgess told WBZ-TV.
"You have to have a structured sort of pattern and I think that's why the guys love it so much and why they can stick with it for so long is because of that structure and the pattern and the routine of it. Once you learn it, it's like riding a bike."
Here Danny Taggert, Alyssa Taylor and Will Merrill perform the many styles of chair weaving that result in a finished product.
Taggert was making a pressed cane seat when we visited. Taylor said putting a chair together usually takes about a month, "depending on difficulty."
"Some chairs are more difficult than the others," she told WBZ.
Merrill made a seat out of recycled paper bags.
"It's a system that we have created and it's nice because everybody can find a place and I think finding a place where you fit, where you belong, that's what life is all about," Burgess said.
For more information, visit the Northeast Arc's website.
