Macon County veteran Dan Bolick carved out a first place win in a national competition presented by the Veterans Affairs Health Care System.
The Western North Carolina VAHCS held its annual Creative Arts Festival in November 2025, in which some of the competition’s winners had entries go on to receive awards at the national level. Bolick placed first in wood carving in the national competition and third in the sculpture category.
The VA holds the competition to promote “the creative arts as one form of rehabilitative treatment to help veterans recover from and cope with physical and emotional disabilities.” Bolick said the competition helps veterans stay active in the community rather than just sitting at home.
During the competition, entrants submit pieces of work in different categories, including poetry and creative writing, visual arts, sculpture, woodworking and more. The medical center recognized a collection of winners, including Capt. Amy Cocanour (colored drawing), Donald Alexander (poetry), Brian Black (acrylic painting), Shirley Bailey (poetry) and John McKitrick (art).
Two of the three pieces Bolick submitted received recognition nationally – a Celtic love spoon awarded first place for carving and a rearing horse sculpture awarded third place in sculpture. The third piece Bolick entered was a wooden staff in the woodworking category. He said he had entered the competition once before without winning first place, instead taking third place nationally.
“Way back, young men, if he liked a girl, he would make a carving and give it to the girl’s father to show him ‘Hey look, I can do this’ to get in with the girl. They called them Celtic love spoons,” Bolick said. “The other carving was a horse, rearing up on its hind legs and he’s got his hooves up in front of his face. I carved it from butternut.”
Bolick gets a lot of his ideas for his carvings from Pinterest, and he took the basic pattern of the horse from there, but he designed the pattern for the love spoon from scratch.
In recognition of his win, Bolick was invited to attend a festival showcasing the winners in Columbia, S.C., in June, but said he probably would not attend the event.
Bolick has always whittled to pass time. Around the year 2000, he purchased a wooden blank from the Macon Chips Woodcarving Club to carve a dog with.
“I said, ‘Well, I need somebody to show me how to do it,’” he said. Bolick has been actively carving since then.
Bolick is now the president of the club, starting his tenure around 10 years ago. The club has six active members and 15 to 16 registered, with 10 carvers present on a good day. Macon Chips meets on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Macon County Public Library and 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays at Macon Middle School.
At the library, the club will occasionally host events to help get youths interested in carving, most recently holding an event for young carvers to use wooden knives to carve sweet potatoes into whales.
“It’s very interesting,” Bolick said. “I like to do that because it gives them an insight as to what we’re doing and maybe give them an interest in something they can pursue for the rest of their lives. A lot of them do very well. We try to cut them out, shape them so that they don’t have to just start with a block of wood. It’s shorter than what we would call a cutout … we’re going to do that again – I think it’s coming up in June of this year.”
Macon Chips is always looking for new members, Bolick said, and those interested can reach out through the Macon Chips Woodcarving Club Facebook page, by contacting Bolick or attending a meeting. Interested members are allowed to attend two meetings for free to determine whether they’re interested, after which they must pay a $10 initiation fee and $25 per year for membership.