Shed time story

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This article was published 19/05/2019 (2573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you’re a man of a certain age, Winnipegger Doug Mackie has a two-for-one deal for you: he’ll provide the raw materials for a pair of walking sticks in exchange for the promise to return a completed one.

He’ll also throw in the opportunity to socialize while carving those diamond willow branches he gathers during walks along city rivers.

“Men don’t talk face to face,” explains Mackie, 78, of why it is important to carve together at the Woodhaven Men’s Shed.

“They talk shoulder to shoulder.”

As many as 55 older men sit shoulder-to-shoulder or side-by-side around folding tables at Woodhaven Community Club two afternoons a week, playing card games, carving willow branches or cottonwood bark, or working on stained glass projects. One member sometimes brings in a portable lathe to turn wood into shafts for ballpoint pens, later fitted with purchased metal parts.

“Everyone who comes here is looking for camaraderie with their age group,” says member Ken Miller, 71.

“There’s so many interests here. You never know who is going to do what.”

This first Canadian men’s shed in Canada is now a program of the Woodhaven Community Club on Glendale Boulevard, where the group has met since 2011. Due to renovations at the club, the group relocated to nearby Westwood Community Church for the next three months.

‘It’s a bunch of men getting together and talking about whatever you want to talk about and there’s never judgment’– John Kliewer

Over the years, shed members have donated their carved walking sticks and canes to an organization helping people recovering from strokes, built picnic tables for a nearby summer camp or just puttered at the community club, installing shelves in a washroom and a sports equipment shed.

Member John Kliewer also tinkered with the club’s riding lawnmower, getting it running again with $65 in parts and a week’s worth of his time.

“There’s not so much I can’t fix,” says the former machinist millwright, truck driver and farmer.

“We all contribute where we can,” adds Mackie.

That contribution also includes annual financial gifts to the community club from fundraising barbecues.

Those practical contributions are really the byproduct of the international non-profit organization for older men. The regular meetings build safe spaces for men of retirement age to connect and interact, says Mackie, who was encouraged by his daughter to set up the Winnipeg group 11 years ago after she read about the Australian men’s shed movement online.

For 78-year-old Woodhaven resident Lyle Lockhart, who lost his wife three years ago, coming to the men’s shed provides regular contact with people outside of his family.

“I come here for fellowship and adult conversation,” says the former biochemist at the Freshwater Institute. “It’s a social interaction with guys here, some in the same boat I am.”

“It’s a bunch of men getting together and talking about whatever you want to talk about and there’s never judgment,” adds Kliewer, 77, who joined the Woodhaven group five years ago.

“This is a place for adult conversation, which is different than conversations with grandkids,” says Lockhart.

At Woodhaven, those conversations take a more personal turn on Tuesdays, which is designated for issues around emotional and physical well-being, featuring speakers addressing nutrition, mood disorders or housing options.

“We have speakers dealing with the health thing. We call it health by stealth,” says Mackie of the weekly presentations he arranges.

“They can ask questions because many times they’ve had the same problems.”

The Woodhaven group charges $35 for an annual membership, which covers liability insurance and some supplies, but invites men to stop by for a few free visits.

“You can drop in three or four or five times and check us out,” says Mackie, a former board member at Woodhaven and now chair of MenShed Manitoba and the Canadian Men’s Shed Association.

The grassroots movement has gained traction with two dozen groups across the country because it offers a communal version of a home workshop and gives men a place to connect in the community.

Some men are encouraged to join by their caregivers or family members, and others have read about it and quietly check it out before committing.

“Who refers people to us? Wives, daughters, female community workers,” says Mackie, who runs the Park City group on Poplar Avenue and is in early discussions about establishing two more groups in Winnipeg.

“They want to refer men to us because they want the man they love or work with to get out.”

Although they don’t meet in a shed or a workshop, the Woodhaven group has filled a shed or two — in their case a warehouse — with power and hand tools. Most are donations from men looking to find a new home for the contents of their home workshop when relocating from a house to an apartment or from widows left with a garage full of tools.

They hold regular tool sales and use the proceeds to fund their activities and make donations to other organizations, says Mackie.

They also rent a table occasionally at St. Norbert Farmers’ Market, selling their crafts and spreading the word about the men’s shed movement, which now has six locations in Manitoba and about two dozen across Canada.

The diamond willow walking sticks remain one of their best advertising tools, says Lockhart, because they invite questions about where to get them.

All it takes is some time with a carving tool to uncover the beauty of the diamond shapes underneath the bark, and a coat of marine-grade varnish to finish it.

“Several people have offered to buy my stick and I told them to come here on a Wednesday afternoon and someone here would make them one or sell them one,” says Lockhart of the walking sticks, which feature diamond-shaped cankers formed in response to a fungus attacking the wood.

For Mackie, seeing men carving together on a weekday afternoon means more than uncovering interesting diamond formations. It demonstrates that the men’s sheds do important work to advocate for older men.

“If I can get five or six more sheds going in Winnipeg in the next five years, I would be absolutely delighted,” he says.”

brenda@suderman.com

Contact Woodhaven Men’s Shed at facebook.com/menshedsmanitoba, or call (204) 804-5165, email dmackies@mymts.net or check out the national movement at http://menssheds.ca