On Sale

A piece about the visit to Sale Men’s Shed in Victoria, four years after Graham visited in January 2015. It was the first Shed Graham had seen and, though impressed with the idea, he had no thoughts at the time of doing one back home:-).

It was an interesting revisit with new things to take in. They have expanded the main shed building, adding another machine shop and they have brought back into use the original metal shed as yet another.

The original shed was about the size of our Staithes and Whitby Sheds. It was owned by the Uniting Church in Sale and they gave its use and insured it.
The Shed needed much more space and the Church allowed it to expand onto a much larger plot with a street frontage.

John Duggan is the Shed President and he shared two lots of sad news. First, the Shedder who befriended Graham (a Greek by origin) had died about a year after Graham’s first visit. Second that there had been 3 suicides in the past year. Two were older men but one was only around 30. He had lost his job.

John Duggan’s eyes were watery when he spoke about this. It reminds me that focus on suicide prevention at Robin Hood’s Bay (but all our Sheds) is a very important need. We have training coming up in early autumn.

It puts into perspective what is and isn’t important in Sheds. We need time for each other.

Here are some of the photos taken.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

On the way to the Sale Men’s Shed Graham passed a newly fenced off area with two containers sited on it. It is the site for a new Community Garden in a partnership between Rotary, Wellington regional Council and the Victoria Police.

• 

• 

•