Retired Navy veteran Oscar Morris comes from a long line of veterans. After retiring from the Navy eight years ago, the Florida native put his lifelong love of woodworking to use helping his fellow veterans.
His mother instilled in him this lifelong habit of serving others.
“She was a police officer,” Morris told The Epoch Times, “and my mother instilled in us [the] value of changing the world using your God-given talents.”
She raised him as a single mother after her husband died.
Before he died, Morris’s father also taught him to use his talents to help others. His father had developed a heart condition and wasn’t able to serve in Vietnam as he'd planned to, but he didn’t let that stop him from giving back to those who did.
“He wasn’t able to go there and do what he was trained to do, so he later on picked up a job making artificial arms and legs for a company, and of course, most of the customers were veterans,” he said.
Now, Morris is following in his father’s footsteps.
How It All Started
“I was fishing one day,“ Morris said, ”and I found a pretty neat piece of wood that was floating, and I grabbed it, put it in the boat, and took it home.”He wondered what to do with it for a little while before the answer came to him.
“[I] don’t know where the answer came from, but I made a cane out of it, a walking cane,” Morris said.
Satisfied that he had done a good job, Morris put a video on Facebook saying that he would give the cane to a veteran for free.
“Well, everybody thought that was touching,” he said, “and my video went viral. It went worldwide, and we started getting all these requests for canes, even though I said local only.”
From there, Morris recruited some friends to help with tracking orders so he could continue using his God-given talent in woodworking, just like his parents had taught him to do.
Despite the help, the demand continued to explode beyond Morris’s ability to meet it.
“We received 500 orders in less than a week, and so we put it out there as of Oct. 15 of 2015 that we had stopped taking orders,” Morris said.
At this juncture, he had to do a gut check regarding whether to continue the snowballing project. “I had to go well deep within myself to try to figure [it] out,” Morris said.
The words and examples of his parents echoed in his mind.
“My mother gave us Christian values, and I let God take over,” Morris said. “Within three years, all the 500 canes were made. I had people that stepped in and helped with shipping costs.”
Morris said he is grateful that he and his organization have never had to go door to door to raise money for the canes. Once those first 500 orders were fulfilled, he turned his cane service for veterans into a nonprofit to keep the canes free for veterans. The money that it needs to operate has always come, he said.
Making Each Cane
So where does the wood come from to make all of these canes?Morris said the answer is simple: Christmas.
“[Nine years ago,] a friend of mine from a big, big chain hardware store, Lowe’s, called me up and said they had a bunch of leftover Christmas trees,” he said.
Not long afterward, 350 trees were dropped off at his house. Morris picked a tree and got started.
“I went right into it, and I started making a cane out of it, and it made a fantastic cane,” he said. “We use the thinner part of the top. And what happened was the cane turned out to be very lightweight and very strong.”
These days, Morris continues to have all of his canes made from donated Christmas trees.
The process to make one cane takes about a week, according to Morris, though it can take longer if the tree has recently been cut down because the wood is still retaining a lot of water.
“Once it is dry,” he said, “we’re able to get a grinder out and take down a large portion.”
Once the cane is shaped, it’s ready for Morris to give it the “smooth as glass” look.
“I use a two-part epoxy resin,” Morris said. “I paint it onto the stick, which takes a few days to cure.”
Celebrating Veterans and Their Service
Morris explained what makes his canes special and unique.“The problem that I found out most people have with a cane is that when you get a metal cane, it makes you look broken,” he said. “I felt that way when I first got glasses. I felt like I was broken, and once I got a cool pair of glasses, well then, there goes that feeling.”
He said his nonprofit makes canes to take away the broken feeling.
“We put their branch of service. We put their rank; we also put the units that they were in,” Morris said. “We put special medals that they’ve received or ribbons. We can do that. And basically, I call it a roadmap. It’s not a roadmap that’s going to tell you where you’re going, but it’s one that shows you where you’ve been, and it has that veteran’s history.”
Morris said he believes his canes bring a touch of the miraculous.
“The cane is a miniature miracle,” he said. “It can’t heal you, but it can make you feel better.”
He says his canes are “a conversation starter” because when other veterans see someone walking with their cane, they often say, “Hey! I served in that unit!” and they start talking to each other.
To date, Morris and his organization have made more than 1,000 canes for veterans, and seeing the effect it has had on his fellow veterans has made it all worth it, he said.
“You can imagine a lot of the veterans,” Morris said. “They’re tough guys, women, and they don’t show any emotion. ... It’s been a personal challenge of mine to make them cry when they get their cane, and I can squeeze a tear out of the toughest veteran.”
And he continues to do it, using his God-given gift to give back.
Morris said that it’s easy to use your talents—just “give it away.”
“A lot of times, people feel that they have to reach into their pocket and pull cash out to help somebody,” he said. “Sometimes, giving them the gift of your talent is worth more than cash to them.”
