Members of the Options woodworking group spend every Tuesday building unique handcrafted pieces.

In addition to their ARTirondack chairs, they build, from scratch, rockers, planter benches, potato boxes and numerous craft pieces.

For the past three years Community Living Dufferin (CLD) has hosted a yearly ARTirondack Chairity Event, its largest fundraising drive of the year.

This year, CLD will again raffle off three unique, one-of-a-kind items.

As in past years, they have a lovely children’s chair, the Royal Throne, which will delight any Prince or Princess. Its bright colours depict a castle surrounded by a moat, with green pastures and a working drawbridge. Hidden behind the drawbridge is a castle which houses the hand-carved and painted play pieces of the King, his Queen and their children, the Prince and Princess.

There are also brave knights on their trusty steeds and of course, no fairy tale would be complete without a dragon.

This chair is a delight to see and will be a favourite resting and play spot for children of all ages.

Karen Bowen, manager of CLD’s Children’s Services, each year donates her time and talent to create a truly unique and fun chair for our auctions and raffles.

New to the raffle this year is a Deacon’s Bench. Utilizing the head and footboards of a single bed donated by Orangeville Furniture, CLD’s woodworking group created a beautiful pine Deacon’s bench. For the last three years, Karen Murphy-Fritz, CLD’s executive assistant has donated her time and talent to create one-of-akind painted chairs. This year, she took on the challenge of turning a beautiful pine bench into a work of tropical art.

The backboard depicts an azure ocean surrounding a tropical island on the horizon. Just offshore, waves crash on the rocks as the tide rolls onto the beach gently lapping around the legs of two Muskoka chairs sitting on the shoreline.

The bench seat resembles a beach with realistic looking seashells and driftwood. This beautiful bench will compliment any room and is the perfect storage spot for blankets on those cold winter nights.

The final item is a six- foot-tall wood carving of a beautiful Victorian-looking Santa Claus. The deep reds of his suit, his snow white beard and the pink blush on his cheeks along with the twinkle in his eyes will bring the wonder and awe of Christmas to all who meet him.

This beautiful piece was donated to us by longtime supporter and advocate Theresa Huntley.

There are only 750 tickets available for the Royal Throne, 1,000 for the Tropical Bench and just 250 for Santa Claus.

CLD is hoping to raise $3,400 with this fundraiser, with the money being used to supplement some of the programs in place for the people CLD supports.

Tickets for these three items are available for sale from any CLD employee or by contacting Karen Murphy-Fritz at 519-941-8971 or karenf@ communitylivingdufferin. ca

If you would be interested in selling tickets on CLD’s behalf in your retail business, please contact Karen Murphy- Fritz.