Dhiraj Parmar Visits Peña Adobe Park
Dhiraj Parmar presents Peña Adobe Historical Society with two new Native American Pump Drills.
In 1983, after retirement, Fairfield resident, Donald Bertholdi became a member of the Friends of the Adult Recreation Center (ARC). The all-volunteer group led the project to build a woodwork shop at the Fairfield Adult Recreation Center. With the help of local businessmen like Billy Yarbrough, owner of Solano Concrete, the group was able to find donations of supplies and funding to build the shop on an open lot located at the east end of the center on Harry Price Drive. While Billy Yarbrough and Don Bertholdi are no longer with us, passing away in 2008 and 2021, the woodshop thrives as seniors continue to build and fix wood projects Monday through Thursday from 7:30am – 12:30pm.
It was on one of those weekdays that Peña Adobe Historical Society volunteer Cricket Kanouff visited the woodshop and met senior member Dhiraj Parmar.
Each year, children attending school field trips at Peña Adobe and the 10-week Camp Adobe summer camp sponsored by the City of Vacaville, learn how the local Native Americans lived. One of the activities the students and campers enjoy is the use of Native American Pump drills to make necklaces from shells.
Over the years the Historical Society’s pump drills had begun to show wear and were in desperate need of repair. Dhiraj was happy to repair the drill Cricket brought to the center and mentioned he could build new drills.
On a recent visit to the Peña Adobe in Vacaville, Dhiraj presented the Peña Adobe Historical Society with two new pump drills. Dhiraj’s attention to detail and craftsman ship were beautifully evident. Students from a recent school field trip, (and a few parents!) eagerly welcomed the new drills and quickly put them to use.
The Peña Adobe Historical Society would like to thank Dhiraj Parmar and the Fairfield Adult Recreation Center’s Woodshop for repairing and making the new pump drills. Children will enjoy them for years to come at Vacaville’s Peña Adobe Park, home of the Peña Adobe, California State Historic Landmark #534 and the former home of the Peña family, who with the Vaca family, (Vacaville’s namesake!) were some of the first settlers to arrive in this area.