Barry Wallace has set up a workshop at home after learning new skills at the Levin Menz Shed.
Barry Wallace has set up a workshop at home after learning new skills at the Levin Menz Shed.
Cancer survivor Barry Wallace credits keeping busy with a like-minded group of men as having played an important part in his recovery from the disease.
He was diagnosed with bowel cancer almost a decade ago. After enduring long bouts of intensive treatment, and with his cancer in remission, he walked up to the corrugated iron doors at the Menz Shed in Levin.
Wallace, who was new in town at the time, joined up at the suggestion of its former secretary Tony Murdoch and credited joining the Menz Shed as playing a major role in his continuing recovery.
“It keeps your mind off it. My oncologist told me it was the best thing I ever did. It stopped me thinking about it,” he said.
The Menz Shed was established 15 years ago as a place for men to meet and put their talents to use, setting up a workshop and home base underneath the grandstand at the Levin Equine Training Facility in Mako Mako Rd, which provided the perfect central location.
Levin Menz Shed hands some of the toys over to representatives of Levin Salvation Army.
As well as the good work, there was a deliberate focus on well-being at the Menz Shed, a base where which members could relax, chat, and learn about health issues, too.
“I went down and had a look and met a few people. And you learn all sorts of things. I’d never been interested in woodwork before,” he said.
“There’s a good camaraderie down there. Anyone will help ya.”
Soon after joining Wallace set about learning how to use the wood lathe and develop his woodworking skills with the vision of making toys that would be given out the children at Christmas who might not otherwise receive much in the way of presents.
So, four years ago, the Shed Toys Project was born. Now, another batch of wooden racing cars, Batmobiles and toy trucks has been hand-made in time to make it under the tree.
Toys were made from repurposed timber and donated materials, although sometimes members would dip into their own pockets if they found themselves urgently short of a small item.
Wallace and wife Maria moved to Levin from Paraparumu in 2015. Maria Wallace, who is a talented quilter, gets involved with the spirit of Christmas, too, by helping make cots for dolls, complete with blankets, mattresses and sleeping bags, with the help of her sister Denise Lepper.
Some of the toys that will be distributed to needy children this Christmas thanks to the efforts of Levin Menz Shed.
Menz Shed members helped out by making the frames for the bassinets.
The two operations are kept separate, though. Wallace made no apologies for the fact that the Menz Shed organisation was for men only.
“Men need that release,” he said.
He tried to get there most Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday work days, but attendance was not strictly monitored.
“If you wake up and get down there its fine, if you don’t wake up then they don’t miss me,” he said.
Meanwhile, Levin Menz Shed was grateful to Levin Racing Club for having the foresight to grant a long-term lease of the old grandstand building and charge a minimal annual rent fee, enabling the members of Levin Menz Shed to continue to create a huge amount of community goodwill.
Club secretary Ron Gibbard said the vision of the the Levin Menz Shed was to serve its local community.
For the last 15 years it has repaired prized possessions of locals, made small items at no or minimal cost for schools and the community, and been responsible for the storage, maintenance and decoration of the Christmas float.
The Levin Menz Shed had partnered with organisations like Salvation Army and Oranga Tamariki in distributing the toys to deserving tamariki.
- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.
