Warrick Bowd (far right) with men’s shed comrades and latest restoration job
Canowindra Men’s Shed is celebrating eight very successful years this year with teething advice, help and comradeship for the region’s latest shed which opened last Friday in Cargo.
Mrs Janet Price, President of the Cudal/Cargo & District Lions Club officially cut the ribbon and The Lions Club also financed the men’s shed from John Gough, Fair Dinkum Shed’s distributor from Sheds Oz in Temora. Canowindra members helped celebrate the opening and they donated a pool table to get the new group started. The Cargo Men’s Shed is hoping to be open each Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturdays and is located at 1 Powers Street, Cargo NSW 2800.
The ceremony was somewhat nostalgic for the Canowindra men, reminding them of their own start in 2006 when they set up their workshop and meeting place in the old Scout Hall that Cabonne Council had moved to their site next to the swimming pool on Lynne Street.
Since then the group has grown to 23 retired and not-so-retired members who’ve created a well-stocked carpentry centre producing just about everything over the years from 70 bird nesting boxes for Landcare to high quality patio furniture, including 24 doubles seats, designed by a woman in the UK.
In between they’ve worked hard chasing grants and regular raffles to buy state-of-the art tools and machinery.
Their main funds come from the jobs they do for outside groups, but as their president Warwick Bowd says: “We’re not here to be a commercially viable group.
“We’re here for friendship, camaraderie, paying our way and keeping occupied.”
And as one of the 60 to 80-year-old members puts it: “You’ve got to keep occupied at our age – or you can fall to pieces.”
If you would like to get involved in the men’s shed community, please contact Warwick Bowd.
By Derek Maitland