Walking sticks are "functional art" -- and a contribution to research
“His work is art with functionality.” —Marvin Sineath
Marvin Sineath and Dick Chappell have never met. They’ve never even spoken on the phone. But they’re teaming up to raise money for Alpha-1 research, and they’re doing it from two different states.
Chappell started making walking sticks for fishing in fast-moving streams. The combination of slick rock and rubber waders often made the footing treacherous. Chappell had a tendency to get dunked. He says it runs in his family.
“My brother and I always fished downstream from our father so we could catch him as he floated by,” he says.
So he fashioned a walking stick. He didn’t see it as interesting, let alone art; “just utilitarian.”
Dick Chappell and his son, Dan, 20, with some of Dick’s walking sticks
His friends soon started asking him if he could make more, and he’s been making them ever since.
He’s made a few sticks from old ski poles, but most of his work is carved out of wood he finds on hunting trails. Some of his canes have rubber tips on the bottom for general use, others have metal tips, for use in ice and snow. Each is unique. No mass production here. Some even have a plaque engraved with phrases from the Acts or other books of the Bible.
A hobby that started 40 years ago brought Chappell and Sineath together. Sineath met Chappell’s brother during an Alpha-1 Association national conference. Sineath and Chappell began to exchange emails. In one of them, Chappell mentioned his cane-making hobby.
“I immediately asked for one to help with my bad knees,” Sineath said.
A few measurements later, Chappell went to work. He made a cane and shipped it from his home in Pennsylvania to a man in South Carolina that he’s never met. Sineath looked at his new cane and a light bulb went on.
“I was in marketing for years,” Sineath said. “When I see something, I see it in terms of money, and that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw these canes.”
A few emails later, Chappell and Sineath agreed they’d try to sell some canes, with all the money going to fund research on Alpha-1. They have a personal interest: Sineath, a South Carolina support group leader, and Chappell have both been diagnosed with Alpha-1 lung disease.
Marvin Sineath’s walking sticks, all made by Dick Chappell
Chappell became one of the few Alphas that have been diagnosed with the genotype, M Heerlen Z. To date, there are only three known families in the country who have this phenotype. Chappell and three of his five children are among them. His other children are carriers. The rare M Heerlen gene will migrate in the “M” band on protein electrophoresis, but does not function well. As a result, the affected families may seem “normal” in testing, but have increased risk for COPD.
Chappell says he’ll never be able to make canes in anything but small numbers. Besides his difficulty breathing, his meticulous hand carving is time-consuming and wears on his 66-year-old arthritic hands. Also, he’s moving away from the woods that have provided his raw materials for years.
But he’s happy to work with what he’s got, “You can’t crawl in a corner and suck your thumb just because something bad is going on in your body. That just makes it worse.”
Sineath and Chappell plan to sell the canes and donate all the proceeds to Alpha-1 research. Anyone who is interested in purchasing one can contact Dick Chappell at chap1@ltis.net or Marvin Sineath at marvinhsineath@bellsouth.net.
Marvin and his “crooked” stick
