We were invited by the nice people at Coleman Court Shopping Centre to come and run our annual Easter Stall
Dennis and the workshop crew had worked long and hard to have enough product for us to put on a good display and to sell.
Traffic to the Stall was a bit quieter than usual, but still a in the end a worthwhile contribution was made to the Shed’s budget.
It is also a great way to meet people, all of who have someone in their lives that could benefit from being a member of the shed and taking advantage of the facility that we have to offer. We have at least one new member as a direct result of our presence during those two days.
Once again a big thank-you to the workshop crew, especially Dennis who made it all happen despite a few hurdles thrown in his way.
We have been asking the Shepherd Centre for some time if there were any thing we could do to help them out, such as make toys, fix furniture and the like.
So we were happy but a bit supervised at their first request… come and put a teepee together. What? On investigation it turned out that they had received funding to buy this fairly large wooden structure in the form of a teepee (a tent used by indigenous North Americans).
Allan took the job and after some three-hundred screws had it all together ready for a test run.
Allan building a Teepee for the Shepherd Centre Rivett
According to the staff at the Centre, the kids just think it’s the best thing ever. We are so pleased to have been able to help and bring a little light into so many lives.
Allan received this email from the people of Quaama:
Allan,
So many people shook my hand and congratulated me on this exercise- I assured them it could have not happened without the cooperation of Weston Creek Men’s Shed, and in particular you as their driving force.
It has been a very fruitful and interesting exercise and a great community rebuilder at a most critical time.
So, please pass on all our sincere thanks and gratitude from the Quaama and wider community.
Don , Kym and Lydia
Container Team for Grandparents Treasure Chest
Report and image: Don, Kym and Lydia
Last of the Containers-for-Good being cleared out by the people of Quaama
For those that weren’t aware of the Containers for Good program, which is what we called it at our end, here is a brief outline:
The scheme came into existence after the extensive bushfires on the South Coast of NSW. In a nutshell, a container was found followed by some funding. The container was shipped to Canberra, to the Weston Creek Men’s Shed. At the time there were large amounts of donations being received, which, due to the calls for help to the public for donations of useful items, soon became a flood. That first container was soon chock-a-block and arrangements were made to ship it back to Quaama. So here we have a situation where there are whole communities that have lost absolutely everything , and into that community lobs a container stuffed full of all kinds of household items, tools, building materials, you name it, it was probably in there. Yes, even the ubiquitous kitchen sink. Don and his team arranged a clearance day and ensured that the items were dished out to those that needed them. That container lasted a half day before it was empty! The people on the South Coast were delighted, as we were at WCMS knowing that we could help in such a practical way.
Meanwhile a second container had been found and shipped back to the WCMS, and we gladly filled it as well. And another. and another. In all seven containers-full were sent to the people of the South Coast, and in the end, people in need were coming from as far away in Victoria to see if they could get something to help them through the darkest of days..
Sadly, all things must come to an end, and as the original funding and subsequent funding dried up, the scheme had to come to a close.
But a brilliant well-done to those that conceived the idea, those that made it happen and those that had enough humanity to fund it.
Our first Bunnings BBQ of the year saw hot and windy weather and our first ever price hike on cold drinks. Bunnings had announced that all drinks are to sell now for $2 each, up from the previous $1.50.
Crowds are good with us selling our quota of snags and a bit more, so we were pretty happy with that. I have to say that its great to see many members turning up to pull their shift, it can be a pretty long 4 hours, but “many hand make light work” as the ancient Chinese electrician was wont to say.
Well done to all of us and as usually a zillion thanks to the public for supporting us and to Bunnings for giving us the opportunity to run the BBQ.
Our first ever for the year was the second annual running of the Breakfast BBQ for all members and guests, held at the shed.
We had a large turn-out of members and guests and all who attended enjoyed a great meal and a nice morning chatting with old and new friends and inspecting all the changes that have been made around the premises since this time last year.
While John and Lino cooked and Allan and Dennis and a swag of others played host, Mike Hardy gave some guests one of his traditional tours of the Shed. Some found the vegetable garden, others the chillies, a lucky few found the blackberry bush and tucked into a few late blackberries.
Not to be outdone by Tony Burns who turned up at the shed at the last Committee Meeting on his first day out of hospital from heart surgery, John Warren made an appearance on his first day out from 167 days or so in hospital. Well done to both and to all our members who are pushing on through whatever life is throwing up at them.
Everyone was duly impressed with the new doors and the even newer decking and veranda, with many suggestions made for its future use, including yoga classes and ballroom dancing!
Thanks to all who made the morning happen with an extra thank you to John Webster for carrying the ‘plan’ through.
Well, it may have taken three months and bit more cash than we had bargained on, but our new ‘space’ is now officially complete.
A vision that started out as a ‘bit more room’ for the workshop, has materialised into a first-class area for all members to use. Many, many thanks to all the men who helped bring the vision to reality, it is a credit to one and all.
Our new deck/verandah almost finished and some of the blokes who made it happen. Image:
A special vote of thanks to Don and Terry, and others, who took up my challenge to build a platform and erect the small shed we had donated to us.
It might not seem a big deal, but having this shed to put donated items into that we can re-home rather than re-use, opens up the way for us to get the new storage container operational, which opens up the way to get the current timber store cleaned out and turned into a workshop, and get the yard cleaned up and get a new floor installed in the #2 cinder-block shed.
So thanks again, and if nothing else the witty repartee and cheerful banter between them kept us amused on the other side of the container while we were slaving away building the deck. Thanks shedders.
We had an invitation from Denman Prospect to come and run the BBQ at their annual Christmas Party, held at Ridge Park. I don’t know how we came to be invited, but I’m very pleased that we were. I hope that it was because the name of Weston Creek Men’s Shed is getting out there and we are becoming know for our community involvement and spirit.
And I’m also pleased that I had no trouble getting support from members to come and help on the day.
The proposal sounded like it was too good to be true. Denman Prospect would supply everything, all we had to do was turn up, cook and serve. And true to their word, the Denman Prospect crew supplied everything we needed and even went to fetch a few more onions when it became apparent that we were going to run short early in the day. They were really great on the day and a huge vote of thanks goes to them!
The BBQ was a big success, we made a healthy contribution to our finances and we got to take our brand of community out into a wider audience. We even discovered that the community now has quite a few vegetarian members and we cooked and sold all the vegan patties, along with a number of onion only sandwiches.
Thanks Leno, and Bruce and Dennis and Graham and John, well done!
On Thursday and Friday, Dennis and a swag of shedders ran a very successful stall at Cooleman Court. The workshop crew have been working their little bottoms off making toys and Christmas trees and reindeers and chopping boards and a host of other things for many months. All that work paid dividends when they sold most of it and made a very tidy sum to bolster the shed finances.
Well done to all concerned, and a big thank you to Mirvac / Cooleman Court management for inviting us in and providing the space for us to hold the stall.
And because No-one took any snaps, I’ve made a montage of some of the things that they made and sold.
Once again the Shed crew turned out to run another Bunnings BBQ, the 4th this year from memory.
As the weather had been so rotten for weeks we weren’t expecting too much, but as it turned out the sun shone and people came out to get their Bunnings and snag sand fix. Business was steady, not the onslaught of the last couple of BBQs, and when the heavens opened at about 2 o’clock, the customers all but dried up.
I have to say though, that being on the till, taking orders and getting the payment, it is refreshing to see that more often than not, the customer has their snag, or in one case seven, and another ten, snags in their hand before the payment has cleared the bank. Well, done to everyone and thank you to the purchasing public and to Bunnings.
