Sometimes life really is a COVID Crapshoot

Woodworker makes dice game to help Victoria Foundation

A Sidney woodworker has turned a few scrap pieces of wood into a dice game, with some of the proceeds going to charity.

John Denny, 63, is better known for his handcrafted custom doors than games. But he was inspired by the efforts of the Rapid Relief Fund — a joint project of the Victoria Foundation, the Jawl Foundation and the Times Colonist — to help people suffering from the effects of the COVID19 pandemic.

“I, too, wanted to do my part to help the community,” said Denny, who has worked with wood for more than 30 years. “But at the time, I didn’t have a lot of spare cash to donate.

“So I thought I could build something to raise money and at the same time bring a smile to people’s faces.”

Since he’s someone who admits seeing every day as a crapshoot: “I don’t know how the day will start and I don’t know how it will end” — he came up with a dice game called COVID Crapshoot.

He found pieces of burl maple lumber in his wood pile, cut them into four-inch pieces and palm sanded the resulting cubes to a fine finish.

“The hardest part was probably attaching the round dots on the sides,” said Denny, whose first project was creating a wood dash for his Volkswagen Beetle in high school.

The game has 36 scenarios, each with a humorous take on the events people are dealing with during the pandemic. Players roll the dice and see the corresponding scenario of the day on the instruction manual. Roll a six and a five and the scenario for the day is your phone slipping out of your pocket and watching your lifeline to the outside world falling into the ocean. Scenarios include bad hair, cheap gas and Dr. Bonnie Henry. “I got most of them from the headlines of the Times Colonist,” Denny said.

It took him three months, working in his spare time, to make 100 games. He has already pre-sold 40 games to friends and customers.

Denny is headed into retirement, but says the project will not be his last. He plans to continue to make small, fun wooden things to sell, with 50 per cent of sales revenue going to charity.

He recently sent off the proceeds from the sale of his first batch to the Victoria Foundation. “It was a great feeling.” The games sell for $80. You can get one from Denny at 250-818-8664 or john@aurorawoodwork.com.

John Denny at Portside Marina with the COVID-19 game, played with wooden dice, that he created. He is donating 50 per cent of the selling price to the Victoria Foundation.