After over 20 years working as a nurse, meet the man giving trees a second purpose

By Justin Pollack

Click here for updates on this story

    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WTVF) — Do you ever feel like you have a particular calling or purpose?

Over time, you might feel like that shifts because our lives and priorities evolve.

One man had the same job for more than 20 years — seeing some of the darkest times our world has ever seen. Now he uses a hobby for his own second purpose.

“Oh yeah, it’ll cure what ails ya,” said Tad Derrickson. “I worked with a pulmonologist at Skyline Medical Center.”

Derrickson worked as a nurse for 20 years.

He worked in the hospital at the height and rise of the pandemic. He worked seven days on and seven days off.

On those off days, he followed his love and ran a mobile sawmill.

“So I grew up with my grandfather running the sawmill,” he said.

He takes trees that might end up in landfills and gives them that second purpose.

“You know and thankfully, the homeowner recognized that hey, this is black walnut,” Derrickson said about a tree in East Nashville. “Two, it’s a tree that’s beautiful and has been here as long as we have.”

“Literally this by itself could be a table, it could be a bench, it could be shelving,” he said. “We’ve helped people literally take old trees and make tables for every member of their family.”

To learn more about Derrickson’s work, visit: tntree.org

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.