Benevolent Design Co. Builds Artisan Furniture and Second Lives for Veterans
As a single father, small business owner and craftsman, Virginia Beach resident Patrick Ryan committed to finding a way to give back to his community before he even conceptualized it. Similar to the way a shape slowly reveals itself within its medium to a sculptor, multiple puzzle pieces have come together perfectly to reveal a path.
As a designer and wood craftsman, Ryan’s primary medium is reclaimed lumber saved from demise in a landfill. Using salvaged products helps to minimize deforestation and erosion, and it is a sustainable channel. Ryan trusts the quality of the older growth wood he salvages over lumber from farmed younger trees.
“Back in the day, it was the survival of the fittest,” Ryan explained. “The trees that grew slower and taller and broke through the canopy were stronger. You can see it in the rings of a cross section; they are much closer together. In much of the farmed trees today, the rings are much further apart and the spaces in between are soft. The lumber is much lighter too, not as sturdy.”
Around 10 years ago, Ryan worked in sales in the surf industry. One of the businesses he worked with went from private to public, from relationships to numbers. “It was soulless,” Ryan said. After multiple personal changes in his life, he decided to start a furniture making business and thought carefully about a name, landing on Benevolent Furniture Co. “I want to do something for the right reasons, not necessarily for profit,” he said. Later, he changed the word Furniture to Design to show how the business was about much more than making furniture.
Ryan began working with the Department of Defense (DOD) SkillBridge Program. In DOD SkillBridge, service members are offered the opportunity to gain valuable civilian work experience through specific industry training, apprenticeships or internships during the last 180 days of service. DOD SkillBridge connects transitioning service members with industry partners in real-world job experiences. The first service member who worked with Ryan was Pete Kern, a United States Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) master chief. Kern was participating in art therapy classes with Veterans Affairs, but he revealed to Ryan that he found the woodworking he did with him much more beneficial.
Around the same time, Ryan attended a business mastery course with author, coach and speaker Tony Robbins who told a story of how when he was a child and struggling financially with his mother, a kind neighbor gifted a Thanksgiving meal to them. Robbins realized there are good people in the world, and he wanted to be one of those good people. To date, Robbins has donated over 1 billion Thanksgiving meals to those in need.
When Ryan arrived at the course as a new business owner, Robbins had the course participants write down how they would fill three buckets in their lives: a security bucket, a risk bucket and a fun bucket. In the fun bucket are toys that you buy, experiences you go through and a way that you give back. Robbins called on Ryan to recite what he wrote about giving back, and Ryan explained his wish to help others like Kern. He also revealed how he was struggling to get his business going and had overdraft his bank account. Robbins, on the spot, promised to give Ryan a check for $2500 — his version of giving him a Thanksgiving meal. Ryan paid back his overdraft, bought materials to begin instruction classes and bought two large slabs of wood.
Ryan reached out to nonprofit Station Foundation in Bozeman, MO dedicated to the Special Operations Forces (SOF) community. Station Foundation helps participants navigate the rough terrain of transition and reintegration back to civilian life. “I told them, send me five people, and we will make the course happen,” said Ryan. “I borrowed tools, did the class for free, and we made it happen.”
Ryan called the course Presence in the Woodshop with an emphasis on the word “presence.” He starts the course with the simple exercise of sharpening a chisel. Next, he has them square a block of wood. “On machines, this would take about 10 minutes,” said Ryan. “But by hand, it takes them about a night to do it.” Ryan uses the slower method deliberately.
One of Ryan’s favorite books is Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. During World War II, Frankl was taken to Auschwitz and witnessed the killing of his wife and daughter. A philosopher and psychologist, Frankl studied his fellow prisoners and himself and took note of why some survived and others did not. After surviving, Frankl founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Ryan utilizes these principles in his work with veterans.
“I try to encourage these men and women to learn to be present,” said Ryan. “I tell them that I understand that your past sucks, and you had to deal with stuff most humans didn’t have to deal with.” Ryan emphasizes to his students how there is nothing they can do to change what happened, but they can find something purposeful to live for going forward. “Each day, we awaken from rest, and that is when you realize your worth,” explained Ryan. “We can only know ourselves in the quiet.”
After students have learned basic squaring up of a piece of wood with hand tools, Ryan starts them on individualized cutting boards made of strips of wood. “They get to pick their wood and make a pattern,” said Ryan. “But I require that they do a drawing first.” In this seemingly inconsequential step of sketching a rectangular model, Ryan is striving to have his students visualize an outcome and the steps needed to get there. The lesson transcends the sketch, and over the course of a few days, the cutting boards are completed, great conversations are had and a renewed seed of purpose is planted.
Today, Ryan works with both Station Foundation and The Wounded Warrior Project to give back through therapeutic woodworking courses. As a certified business through the DOD StillBridge program he hosts 3- to 6-month long programs for which active duty service members can apply to learn and develop a new skill. Ryan uses it as an opportunity to also strengthen their mental well-being, making their transition into civilian life much smoother.
“I have a massive amount of respect for these people,” exclaimed Ryan. “I eventually want 500 service members coming through here.”
Currently, Benevolent Design Co. makes custom, residential and commercial furniture. Locally, you can find their work in restaurants; such as Esoteric, Baker’s Crust Artisan Kitchen, Baker’s Crust Bagel, TASTE and Heirloom; in businesses, such as Rutter Mills LLP and Parker Burnell Real Estate Group, and others.
When trees were being cut down to make way for the new wave park in the ViBe Creative District, Ryan saved them from disposal. “I and others tried to save the trees on the lots, and when we couldn’t, we said, let’s at least be able to use them,” he said. He milled the lumber just off the wave park site, and his company and students made furniture from the wood that will be returned home to stand in the various conference rooms, lobbies and leasing offices of the buildings at the wave park.
Just like those trees — that provided shade, protection, nourishment, clean air and strong roots to the community and are now contributing in a different way — the invaluable service members and veterans who come through Benevolent’s program and become skilled at both woodworking and managing their own mental health are discovering a new purpose in life.
