The Levin Menz Shed members who spend all year creating these masterpieces for gifting to local children in need at Christmas. Photo / Nikki Carroll
The Levin Menz Shed members who spend all year creating these masterpieces for gifting to local children in need at Christmas. Photo / Nikki Carroll
The countdown to Christmas is well and truly on, and the Levin Menz Shed has just handed over more than 150 wooden toys to be given to children in our community whose families struggle at this time of year.
Fill a Shoebox Horowhenua is a gifting initiative that has been operating since 2014 and is the brainchild of Levin Police Senior Sergeant Beth Purcell and Therase Apatu, a senior practitioner at Oranga Tamariki.
John Shearman from Levin Menz Shed said the members have been making toys for the initiative for the past five years.
"We work on the toys all year round and Therase picks them up early November to add to other items [she sources]," Shearman said.
A selection of some of the amazing toys created by the members of Levin Menz Shed for Fill a Shoebox Horowhenua. Photo / Nikki Carroll
A range of wooden toys are made - including trucks, tractors, doll cots, pull along animals, aeroplanes and doll clotheslines.
Over the past couple of years member Barry Wallace's wife Marie and her sisters have also made mattresses, woollen blankets and woollen sleeping bags to go with the doll cots.
Apatu said she is incredibly grateful for the donations the Levin Menz Shed makes every year, and has had excellent feedback about the toys from grateful parents.
"[The parents] say that they're good, sturdy toys that really last ... the men often include extras like the miniature pegs for the clotheslines," she said.
The biggest and best 'man-cave' in Levin has to be the Menz Shed in Mako Mako Rd. Photo / Nikki Carroll
Levin Menz Shed's members, whose ages range from mid 60s to mid 80s, use the fully equipped workshop to work on their own interests as well as participating in community projects.
The Levin shed, based under an old grandstand at 131 Mako Mako Rd, has been set up according to a nationwide community shed premise that recognises social contacts and being useful are two of the major contributors to good health and wellbeing.
"Being part of a combined community effort to make sure that local kids who might miss out still get something special for Christmas is pretty awesome," said Shearman.
No detail is too much for the toys created by the members of Levin Menz Shed - including miniature pegs for the doll clothesline. Photo / Nikki Carroll
Apatu said the Fill a Shoebox Horowhenua organisers endeavour to make sure no gift recipients' privacy was breached.
All they needed was an address, and the child's age and gender so the present provided could be appropriate.
The gifts were then delivered a week before Christmas, "so the parents don't have to decide whether they can afford to buy either food or presents for their kids," said Apatu.
Another local, Natalie Neil, has come on board this year to help co-ordinate the initiative as she will be taking over the mantle from Apatu in 2022.
"After more than six years of co-ordinating [this project] it's time for some fresh ideas and I don't want to risk losing my love for Christmas," laughed Apatu.
If the community wants to contribute to this year's effort, they can get in touch with Therase Apatu on 027 486 0222, or check out https://www.facebook.com/christmasforeveryone
