One person’s trash is another’s
treasure, and Dick Oglesby, 76, has taken the old saying to heart
by creating a holiday display consisting of old jewelry donated by the
women of Oak Terrace Active Retirement Community, where he also
lives.
“In June, I asked the activities
director to ask the ladies if they had any broken jewelry and
earrings to make a wall-hanging Christmas tree,” Oglesby
says.
Sandwich bags and shoeboxes of jewelry began
to accumulate. By the time Oglesby had finished collecting, he had
amassed nearly 250 pieces, ranging from brooches to rosary charms.
As beautiful jewelry came in, Oglesby says,
he used his imagination to decide where each piece should go.
Oglesby, who worked as a risk-management
supervisor for Central Illinois Public Service Co. before retiring
in 1990, spent two or three hours a day, a few days each week, for
three months, designing and building the tree.
Because he has arthritis in his fingers, the task
wasn’t easy. He purchased the supplies, including a beautiful
piece of green velvet, the most expensive he could find, for the
backdrop. Oglesby then used an X-Acto blade to cut holes in the velvet
for each light and laid out the jewelry in a pattern. His wife, Susie,
also an Oak Terrace residence, offered her advice along the way.
“I think it’s
beautiful,” says Lorrie Eden, activities director for Oak
Terrace, of Oglesby’s tree. “He put a lot of time, work
and effort into it. To me it’s a gift of love to the
residents from him because he took their old jewelry and made
something beautiful out of it.”
Oglesby has two trees in the works for his children, and a finished piece — his first tree, graced with family mementos — is displayed in his apartment at Oak Terrace.
Oglesby has two trees in the works for his children, and a finished piece — his first tree, graced with family mementos — is displayed in his apartment at Oak Terrace.
