By Parker McKenzie
Despite not having a permanent home to call their own for four years, members of the Upwey Men’s Shed have undertaken several projects to help the local community.
Upwey Men’s Shed President Gerran Wright said despite being one of the few men’s sheds with no workshop, the group is still meeting regularly.
“Luckily, we’ve been able to get enough grants and fundraising done now over the four years to be able to build the shed,” he said.
“We’ve got all the money lined up ready to go, we just need the site to put it on.”
Recently, members helped repair a bike for a local boy whose mother approached the group.
“We brought all the equipment needed to fix the bike, one of our members took it home and got to work on it, renewing all the parts and getting it going,” Mr Wright said.
“He’s making use of the bike, although the weather hasn’t been all that conducive.”
The Men’s Shed has been forced to knock back other people who have approached them with similar bike issues because it isn’t able to store or work on them without a permanent location.
Mr Wright said it is difficult for the group because they rely on the generosity of people doing the work in their own homes.
“The Men’s Shed is about guys getting together, working shoulder to shoulder,” he said.
“We can only do it in our own little workshop at home, no one else can participate. It’s the goodwill of the members that are making this sort of thing happen rather than being a shared activity.”
Despite this, the members have also recently built a bench seat for the Upwey Community Group, with two more on the way.
Mr Wright said the community group approached the Men’s Shed to see if they could help upgrade an old seat in the local community garden.
“They looked at it and they said we love it, we can probably use more of those,” he said.
“We approached Demak Outdoor Timber and Hardware in Ferntree Gully to see if we could get a discount, as you know it is pretty expensive at the moment.
“They got back to us and said it’s free, so all we need to do now is buy the hardware, the screws to fix the timber together. We’re going to have to do it at one of the guy’s own homes because we can’t do it at the township hall, it just isn’t set up as a workshop.”
Aside from these projects, the members have also undertaken a basic first aid training course through St John’s Ambulance Australia.
Upwey Men’s Shed is continuing to look for a permanent home in the local area and is revisiting several locations which they have approached in the past four years. The members will net meet on 31 August at Maria Cafe in Upwey.
