PAXTON – Stan Foster of Paxton has won DeWalt's Top Finish Carpenter Award after a dual stairway he built was chosen the top project in a competition that attracted more than 150 entrants.
As a result, Foster will receive $34,272 in prizes, including a table saw, air compressor, speed-belt sander and planer, plus Carharrtt clothing and tickets and pit passes to a NASCAR race.
Foster got the call from DeWalt, a manufacturer of industrial power tools, on Tuesday, telling him of his victory. The company had chosen 17 finalists, posted their projects on a Web site and asked the public to vote for their favorite.
"I was supposed to find out who was to win Monday, and it was the longest day of my life. I had been up at the top with another guy, and (toward the end of the contest) nobody knew who was ahead," Foster said.
It was "just a relief" to get word of the results, he said. "By Tuesday, I didn't care. I just wanted to hear a name and get over with it," he said.
Foster said DeWalt didn't expect the enormous response it got on the Web site. "It just overwhelmed them. It turned into the talk of any woodworking forum you could find."
As the owner and operator of Stan's Stair Shop in Paxton, Foster specializes in custom curved stairways. He chose as his project a dual stairway he's building for a Peoria area home. His online entry showed more than 100 photos of his work, as well as an account of the project.
Foster, 54, began building stairs in 1987, while working for Hallbeck Homes in Champaign as a trim carpenter. He then started building stairs on his own and went into business full-time for himself in 1997.
This fall, he's had three or four stairway projects, and he has several more projects for the winter and spring, including stairways for three homes along Lake Michigan.
Foster said he's thrilled with the opportunity to go to a NASCAR race, though he hasn't decided which one. He said when he asked if he'll get the chance to meet his favorite driver, Matt Kenseth, the DeWalt representatives told him they thought they could arrange that.
Foster said he got choked up when he was told he was among the 17 finalists, and decided at that point he was going to win it. He said he got to meet some "fantastic people" during the contest, including a competitor, a cabinetmaker from Ohio. "His was my favorite project," he said. "We're really close friends after this."
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