Joe Creaturo’s skills create a winning Christmas centerpiece
Joe Creaturo of Pomerene Hospital stands beside the decorative Christmas centerpiece he helped create that became the Judge’s Choice winner at the annual Pomerene Auxiliary Christmas event that featured 107 Christmas decorations.
The winning judge’s centerpiece entry for the annual Pomerene Auxiliary Christmas Festival at the Berlin Grande Hotel on Thursday, Dec. 5 brought together a traditional Christmas look with a modern Christmas appeal, and it came courtesy of the handiwork of one of Pomerene Hospital’s own.
Jay Creaturo, Pomerene Hospital therapy manager and director of therapy services, created a handcrafted wooden piece to add the finishing touches on the award-winning centerpiece designed and created by his department.
Creaturo’s team submits a piece annually to this special event, and this year was no exception, aside from the staff turning to Creaturo for his woodworking expertise.
The staff found a design they liked, a small ornamented Christmas inside a wooden frame surrounding the tree. The ensemble was capped off with a small candle lantern with pine around the base of the centerpiece, but it was Creaturo’s creativity that brought the piece to life.
“The staff found something they really liked and showed me a picture of it and asked me if I could recreate something like it,” Creaturo said. “I said I’d give it a whirl. Woodworking is something that I find to be nice and relaxing.”
Never one to back away from a woodworking challenge, Creaturo said he dabbles in woodworking to the point where he will try just about anything, so he went to work duplicating the piece.
The design was a pair of triangular Christmas tree outlines that seemed to be floating, one inside the other.
Once he completed the woodworking part, his addition surrounded the small Christmas tree, putting a modern twist around a traditional-looking Christmas tree.
“It wasn’t anything that was too difficult, and it wasn’t terribly time-consuming,” Creaturo said. “I had a lot of fun putting it together, and our team did a great job of making it look great.”