By Tanya Steele
Yarra Junction’s Men’s Shed or ‘Ben’s Shed’ as it is known – has recently received a funding grant which was welcomed over official celebrations and a nice pork BBQ lunch by the members.
Ben’s Shed has officially received the 2022-23 Casey volunteer grant through federal member for Casey, Aaron Violi MP’s recent funding round.
“Ben’s Shed has used the funding to purchase a new set of portable battery-run tools to be used by members,” Mr Violi said.
Mr Violi visited the shed on Wednesday 30 August to officially congratulate the members on their successful grant application.
Vice President at Yarra Junction’s Ben’s Shed, Richard Goldie said the grant funding was a welcome addition to the shed’s resources.
“We run a school program which is where some of the funds will be used, we network with five primary schools – we go to them or they come to us,” he said.
“We also have women members at our shed and the shed runs nearly every weekday.”
Ben’s Shed also has regular meals with their members – and Mr Violi got to sample the weekly lunch while he was there.
“Having joined members of Ben’s Shed for lunch, it was amazing to see how the shed contributes to positive mental health for men. Men’s sheds are such an asset to our community and I am proud to see this grant make such a difference to the members and local students,” Mr Violi said.
Mr Goldie said that their shed also does a lot of repair work and recently finished some interesting work on some older-style kitchen chairs.
“We also do a lot of small woodworking repairs for the community,” he said.
Ben’s Shed has a solid group of between 50 and 60 people and does both wood and metalworking.
September 3 to 9 will see Men’s Sheds nationwide celebrate 30 Years of Sheds.
Men’s Sheds not only play important roles in the overall improvement of health and wellbeing but also positively engaging within their community for the benefit of their community.
For many Australian men (and women) the local Men’s Shed offers somewhere to go, something to do and mates that make it all worthwhile.
