It Happened in Crawford County: Tools that are helping people here and abroad

Mary Fox
·4 min read

The recent stories about Waycraft Inc. led to another column about local entrepreneur Ron Morton, who was featured in a 2019 column. His dream has been to use his unique drywall tools to help fund his mission work endeavors. The concept of these unique tools happened when he was a missionary in Chile. In 1990 their ministry purchased a three-story building built around 1860 in downtown Santiago, Chile, and renovated it into an office. Drywall in Chile was not a common product so there weren’t any tools to work with it. “Necessity is the mother of invention," Plato said.

Buddy Tools are packaged at Waycraft Inc. in Bucyrus. Pictured are, left to right, Ron Morton, Direct Support Professional Supervisor Kathy Stinchcomb, and Jeff and Lisa - two of the workers involved in the packaging.
Buddy Tools are packaged at Waycraft Inc. in Bucyrus. Pictured are, left to right, Ron Morton, Direct Support Professional Supervisor Kathy Stinchcomb, and Jeff and Lisa - two of the workers involved in the packaging.

Ron started producing his first drywall tool in 2010, with he and his mom, Donna Morton, doing all of the labeling and packaging until 2017. Donna didn’t mind working hard in her 80s, but with the increase in sales they couldn’t keep up with demand.

Waycraft came into the picture when a local person told Ron they might be able to help. If Ron had known about Waycraft earlier, he said, he would have approached them years earlier to do the work.  Currently there is an entire section at Waycraft dedicated to labeling and packaging his tools. Ron said it’s been a tremendous help and wonders where else could he find such good workers. He also knows he "couldn’t keep up without their help.”

“Buddy Tools has given our individuals the opportunity to learn new vocabulary, tasks and helps our individuals maintain and develop their fine motor skills," said Waycraft Plant Manager Keith Vinson, who was featured earlier this year.

Ron Morton, president of Buddy Tools LLC, states that Waycraft is very special because it provides their individuals a great opportunity for work and they love working with their products. The guys even love the green color of the tools and the work has added a lot of enjoyment to the lives of the workers there.

Ron finally secured a contract for placement of two of their Ohio-made tools in all of the Menards big box stores. This is a huge accomplishment for any small business, and he is very proud of it. The green “TapeBuddy” drywall taping tool saves so much project time because it coats the compound directly to the tape which eliminates the need to pre-coat the seams. The other option was taping by hand, but the problems encountered were tape blisters and it’s also a very messy job. Buddy Tools LLC currently manufactures four unique drywall tools, and Ron has three tool patents in his name. Ron is pleased to announce there is a fifth tool coming out in the next several months.

Ron Morton’s mission work is quite extensive across the world and the need for qualified people to know how to work with their hands is big. Ron has taken more than 225 short-term mission trips  to 22 countries since 1997. Because of the pandemic, traveling overseas virtually stopped in 2020, however their ministries never slowed down.

Word of Life Ministries has been busy the past several years constructing a service training center in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Word of Life Ministries has been busy the past several years constructing a service training center in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

One of his main focuses since 2018 is the construction of a service training center in Cochabamba, Bolivia.  (You can find more about Palabra de Vida Bolivia on Facebook.) The school will be very similar to Pioneer Career and Technology Center in Shelby. There is a difference between this school and Pioneer. The “STC” will house 90 students in dorms and provide Bible-based training for them. The whole ministry of Word of Life ministries is funded by people who want to reach and train youth across the world, which includes some 75 countries and 16 Bible institutes on five continents. Of interest with the war in Ukraine going on, Ron noted they have a Bible Institute property 20 minutes from Kiev.

Camping is one of the largest ministries of Word of Life across the world. Camps reach tens of thousands of youths every year. Camping programs are offered to the local churches and schools where they bring their youth for an exciting week of amazing sports competitions, awesome food and great teaching from the Word of God. It is a week for them to remember for a lifetime. Many make life-changing commitments to the Lord.

Ron has already been in the Dominican Republic three times in 2022, with about 15 trips there in the last five years. This is a youth camp for around 400 campers and literally reaches people from their entire country.

You can contact Ron about attending World of Life International Ministries mission trips at PO Box 42, Sulphur Springs, OH  44881 or check out their tools at buddytoolsllc.com.

Go online for more of Mary Fox’s stories and photos on bucyrustelegraphforum.com. If you are interested in sharing a story, write Mary Fox, 931 Marion Road, Bucyrus, OH 44820 or email littlefoxfactory@columbus.rr.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: It Happened in Crawford County: Tool entrepreneur Ron Morton's mission