Lincoln veteran finds purpose in penmaking

Stop by Nebraska Innovation Studio most days, and you’ll find Rich Esquivel turning unremarkable wood blocks into remarkably beautiful pens. Chances are, though, that he won’t notice you. Esquivel, a 73-year-old Vietnam veteran, is completely focused when he is creating pens at the makerspace, located on Nebraska Innovation Campus. “I can get lost. The main thing is, this process mellows me, and my PTSD is not at the forefront [of what I’m doing],” Esquivel says.

Esquivel visits Nebraska Innovation Studio as part of the Veterans in Recovery program, a therapeutic program that offers Esquivel and fellow veterans a space for creativity, camaraderie, calm, and focus — not to mention a renewed sense of purpose, as proceeds from the pens are funneled back into veterans’ programs. His membership is covered by a $1,200 gift to the program by Union Bank & Trust in support of veterans like Esquivel, who are grateful for the opportunity for mindfulness and increased well-being in the 16,000-square-foot makerspace that includes a wood shop, metal shop, art studio, ceramics and textiles space, and a rapid prototyping room. You might say it’s the perfect place to get lost — and to find yourself.

Turning pens on a lathe is therapeutic because it requires intense focus. The lathe spins rectangular blocks of wood or acrylic, and pen turners then use sharp tools to shape them into unique and stylish pens. Esquivel says he devotes his total attention on what he’s creating. “I don’t think of anything else because I want to see what I‘m going to do with my pen,” says Esquivel, who did a year-long tour in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1970 as a demolition specialist with the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division.

The veterans program was the brainchild of Jim Young, a Vietnam-era Navy corpsman. He had worked with veterans in San Diego and saw firsthand the positive effects these pen-turning projects could have on the lives of veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and difficult adjustment to civilian life. Young is also a wood turner, so he knows how therapeutic simply using a lathe can be. When he moved to Lincoln with his wife, Vickie, to be closer to their son and grandchildren, Young proposed starting a program similar to the San Diego model at Nebraska Innovation Studio.

Since the program started in January 2018, more than 260 veterans have joined Nebraska Innovation Studio. Any veteran who takes part in the Veterans Administrations Whole Health or Veterans in Recovery programs is eligible. In addition to the UBT gift, an anonymous donation pays for other memberships and for all the supplies used by the program.

The pens that are crafted by Esquivel and his fellow veterans are available to purchase at Nebraska Innovation Studio for $20 each. All proceeds from their sale are used to support veterans and their families.