Latrobe Baptist Men’s Shed
missional initiative:
Community Project with Built-in Opportunities
The Latrobe Men’s Shed is a community project of the Latrobe Baptist Church. The basic premise of the shed is to provide an informal place, where men can spend a couple of hours meeting new friends whilst engaging in manual activity or for simply just to chat over cuppa.
The generous support of the Latrobe City Council made the erection of the shed, at the rear of the Church property, possible; plus a grant of $40,000 from the Tasmanian Community Fund; grants from local businesses; and the financial support of the Latrobe Baptist Church itself.
2013, saw the erection of a new shed. The demolition of the old shed, and subsequent rebuild, took 1163 manhours, much of the time given voluntarily.
The nuts and bolts of the Latrobe Men’s Shed
The men meet at the shed on Fridays from 9am to 1pm, with a tool-box meeting at 10am and a barbecue at noon. Members are encouraged to spend one third of their time on charity and community projects, one third of their time on Shed maintenance and one third of their time on their own projects.
Participants can at all times find someone to have a talk to, including the Pastor of the Latrobe Church, the Rev. Ralph Terry who is always in attendance.
The Shed takes in projects from the local community. The first project was the refurbishment of Kinder furniture for the Sassafras Primary School.
Apart from getting to know each other, the men learn how to use equipment and how to make useful items. To facilitate this there are, at times, skilled tradesmen in attendance who teach skills such as wood turning. Pursuits include general woodwork, mechanical repairs, jewellery, and antique restorations.
For all creatures, great and small
In all, the Latrobe Men’s Shed has completed 360 projects including the already mentioned Primary School furnishings, small cars for Operation Christmas Child, widow’s gardens, 30 Billy-carts, garden seats, gymnasium boxes, bird feeders, wood turning projects, two kitchen renovations, letter boxes, a pig pen and rabbit hutches.
A committee of five runs the shed, and 57 men have joined since its beginning. There are those who have taken on the tasks of Property Officers, Auditor of the financial records, and general helpers.
Naturally, the work came to an abrupt end earlier this year with the onset of the Corona virus, but it reopened again on 20 June, after a three-month break.
Let’s remember to pray for Rev. Ralph Terry, and others at Latrobe Baptist, as they provide friendship, support and encouragement for men in their community using the Latrobe Men’s Shed.
Laurie Rowston
Tas Baptists’ Historian and
occasional writer