Men’s Shed Whanganui finds new home thanks to local football club

Men's Shed Whanganui will be moving into the old Marist Football clubrooms on Peat Street in January next year. Photo / Finn Williams

A Christmas gift came early for Men’s Shed Whanganui, as they have managed to find a new building to move into in the new year.

The charity will be moving into the old Marist Football Club clubrooms on Peat Street.

They are currently based opposite the Baptist Church on Wicksteed Street, but will have to vacate due to the development of a new community hub which is planned to be built on the site, meaning their current building needs to be demolished.

Men’s Shed Whanganui chairman Bevan Chilcott said when they received notice, they were desperate for a new space as there didn’t seem to be many options open for them.

“The options were to just close and sell the equipment because we’re a charitable trust - so, sell it or store it,” he said.

The Men’s Shed organisation operates throughout the country and the world, providing a place for retired men and women to go, make friends, keep active and perhaps learn new skills or hone old ones.

The team at the shed does a lot of repair work for the public, often of a sort that no-one else will do. The Men’s Shed is a registered charitable society and does a lot of work for other charitable organisations.

After an article was published in the Chronicle about the shed needing a new home, they got an offer from Marist Whanganui president Russell Eades.

The organisation took Eades up on the offer to use the football clubrooms, and now has a four-year lease on the building.

They were grateful for Eades and Marist coming to the party.

“[He’s a] totally delightful guy, very dedicated and very ethical to deal with, when he says he’ll do something, by hokey, he does it,” Chilcott said of Eades.

The move had come with some issues, but Chilcott was happy for the shed to have a new home.

“Our rent has gone up considerably; we’ll have to do a budget on that and we’ll have to apply for grants ... but we’ve got a home now, which is great,” he said.

Moving their equipment will come down to the wire for the group, as they won’t be able to gain entry to the new building until January 13, and need to be moved out of their old building by January 16.

The members of the group have all but closed their current shed as they make the preparations for the move, Chilcott said.

“The boys are all packing - we’ve virtually closed the Men’s Shed now. That was packing all the heavy machinery to shift, packing [it] into boxes [to be] ready for the transfer.”

He said he was proud of the group for knuckling down to make sure the move goes as smoothly as possible.

“Everyone’s working as a team. It really shows where fellowship is coming from.”

After the move is completed, he said it would take a couple of weeks for their equipment to be properly set up, but he hoped to have the group back up and fully operational by early February.