A place for senior men to work shoulder-to-shoulder and socialize over projects such as woodworking or bike repair.
That is the idea behind the Men’s Shed, a project Squamish’s Rick McKinney aims to facilitate in the district.
“It is a really great space for senior men to meet other senior men, have some space to work on projects – make good social connections close to home,” said McKinney.
Men’s sheds began in Australia in 2007, according to the Canadian Men’s Sheds Association website, and have since become a global movement. Australia currently boasts more than 900 sheds and others have sprung up in New Zealand, Ireland, the U.K. and Scotland, according to the association.
In Canada, the first shed was founded in 2011 in Winnipeg. Pemberton has the Pemberton Valley Men’s Shed with a lending library where tools from a screwdriver to a drill can be signed out.
Some senior men need this type of organization, according to McKinney. Typically older men don’t feel comfortable sharing their feelings because in their time it wasn’t “a comfortable or common thing,” he said.
“To be able to have a space that is safe with other senior men and work on a project together, you are able to make those relationships. You are able to break those barriers to speak in different ways, because men communicate differently than women.”
Some men have downsized and left behind a home they spent many hours working on, which was part of their identity, McKinney added.
“That could be really hard on some men,” he said. “Their whole life that is what they are used to.” The Squamish Men’s Shed would offer those men an opportunity to work on projects again.
McKinney is hosting the first meeting of the Squamish Men’s Shed on Sept. 9. The shed will progress depending on who shows up and what they want to do.
“We are just really in the early stages,” McKinney stressed. The Squamish Senior Citizens Home Society has provided the project with a space at The Cedars in downtown Squamish. “There’s a current workshop and we plan to build an indoor-outdoor type gazebo that is wheelchair accessible. But until we establish the advisory board, I am just here to make what the men want to happen, happen.”
The Squamish Men’s Shed project is funded in part by a grant from United Way and with support from Sea to Sky Community Services.
To get involved with the project, contact McKinney at [email protected] or attend a short meeting at the Sea to Sky Community Services office on Sept. 9 starting at 11 a.m.
