Forest Wenokur

A carpenter with Pathway since summer 2021, Forest has a wide variety of talents that extend well beyond building—including authoring sci-fi and fantasy short stories and novels, writing poetry, and “firespinning” with a staff, hula hoop, and poi (two balls affixed to lengths of rope with handles).

Forest, who earned an associate degree in applied sciences/carpentry from the Wood Technology Center, says he likes how carpentry is like “doing a puzzle, but you have to build the pieces before you can put them together—everything is a custom fit!”

Before joining Pathway, Forest had roles as an apprentice and cleaning/testing electronics that were in house fires or floods, which meant spending “eight hours a day scrubbing the insides of anything from curling irons to flat-screen TVs with a toothbrush.” He lives in North Seattle.