Mark Roberts, Trustee, Hanford Mills Museum
“I work in my shop with my tools under the motto ‘use them, don’t abuse them.’ This must have been the same motto people working in the mill used when you look around at all the machines and tools that can still be used today and realize that they took care of the tools that gave them their livelihood.”
“My first project was in 1988 with a cradle for my newborn niece. That cradle has now received my nephew, my daughter and now her two children. Hopefully my niece and nephew will use it for their children one day. Since then I have built an infant’s mobile support that they lay under and play, toddler towers so the kids can stand next to Mom or Dad at the kitchen counter and help, and a learning board with knobs, dials, locks and lights. I prefer to build useful things that have the potential to become heirlooms for future generations, that’s why I enjoy being involved in the Mill and preserving its future and its tie to the past.”
