The Entrance Community Centre opens

Shed members recently attended the official opening of The Entrance Community Centre. A number of people turned up on a beautiful spring day to see the facility provided by Wyong Shire Council.

President of The Entrance Men’s Shed, Kevin Armstrong, took the opportunity to thank the Mayor of Wyong Shire, Bob Graham, and Wyong Shire Council, for the construction and support of The Shed.

Everyone attending agreed the day was a great success and a credit to the organizers.

The mobile shed returns

The mobile men’s shed has been doing good work up at Swansea Men’s Shed. The mobile shed can be towed to events and facilities and setup to raise the profile of men’s sheds.

The Swansea Men’s Shed team have used it for a number of weekend events and also taken it to the local shopping centre to generate interest in their Men’s Shed Project. The mobile shed generated interest wherever it was located and eventually lead to eight new members joining the Swansea Men’s Shed.

Recent projects (July 2009)

Shed members have been busy during July working–amongst other things–on new benches for The Shed. In the images below Shed members Geoff, Alan, Rob, Peter, and Michael are constructing benches and considering the old saying “measure twice, cut once”!

Thanks to generous donations The Shed now has a good selection of timber for turning on the lathe stacked up and ready to go:

The Mobile Men’s Shed is headed north to the Hunter region. Bill Geary and Noel Matthews towed the trailer for an event on 25 July in Swansea.

New noticeboards for The Shed

Mingara Recreation Club have generously donated two noticeboards to The Entrance Men’s Shed. Shed members had the noticeboards quickly installed and they are now doing their job of displaying notices and photos for shed members.

We’d like to thank Dave Betts from Mingara Recreation Club who not only organized the donation but also loaded the ute and delivered the noticeboards direct to The Shed.

2009 Annual General Meeting

It’s Annual General Meeting time at The Entrance Men’s Shed. To be an effective community organization The Shed needs a strong membership base so if you are interested in supporting men in The Entrance area please consider joining.

The Entrance Men’s Shed Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held at The Shed, 15 Battley Avenue, on Friday the 21st of August 2009, at 12pm.

Please use the links below to download the official documents for the AGM.

Donation boxes for kids in need

Members of The Entrance Men’s Shed have recently been constructing donation boxes for the Kids In Need organization. Rhonda from Kids in Need has coordinated with a shoe store chain that has offered to put them on each of their service counters.

This organization raised over $150,000 last year for cancer support, making this project one The Shed is proud to support.

Sponsorships and donations

The Entrance Men’s Shed would like to acknowledge the generous sponsorships and donations listed below that make day-to-day shed activities possible.

Our primary sponsors are:

Our ongoing sponsors are:

We acknowledge generous donations from:

  • The Entrance Bowling Club
  • Open Shutters Pty Ltd
  • ADSSI
  • Bunnings
  • Berkeley Vale Steel
  • Kevin Armstrong
  • Geoff Dunn
  • Robert Ilhein
  • Express Timber Solutions
  • Retravision
  • Woolworths Supermarkets
  • Mrs J Mulkachey

The Centrelink Forum

The Entrance Men’s Shed had flyers on display at the recent Centrelink Forum at Mingara.

The forum was organised and promoted by Centrelink. Attendees presented, displayed or promoted the services that they offer. Attendees included The Salvos, The Samaritans, Centacare, The Department of Housing, The Department of Fair Trading and many other community groups.

There was considerable interest in The Entrance Men’s Shed from a broad cross-section of services that deal with men who are in need of a place to spend time, develop skills, build relationships and improve their self esteem. All activities we support at The Entrance Men’s Shed.

Michael’s spanner rack

The Entrance Men’s Shed has received a number of loose spanners in generous donations of tools.

Finding the right sized spanner when it’s needed can be a challenge so shed member Michael has been constructing a wall rack where spanners can be sorted by size and easily accessed.

This project required a lot of patience in drilling and installing the numerous screws needed to hang the spanners. Other shed members have joked with Michael that he may end up with an ongoing job constructing tool racks!

Donation by Open Shutters

The Entrance Men’s Shed has recently received a generous donation of equipment from Open Shutters. We gladly accepted a large table-saw, a large air compressor and a photocopier. Thank goodness for three-phase power!

Despite the challenges of very wet weather the delivery and installation went smoothly. Renting a forklift saved a lot of bending and lifting. We’d also like to thank Dave from Mingara Club for his liaison with Open Shutters and for organizing transport from Berkeley Vale Steel. Thanks also to Peter from Open Shutters who helped identify equipment at the factory and organized it for collection.

Some donated equipment was too large for The Shed, but it was quickly adopted by other Men’s Sheds of The Central Coast and The Hunter region.

Donation of docking saw

Express Timber Solutions (ETS) of Long Jetty have recently donated the docking saw shown in the image below. This is a welcome addition to the equipment at The Shed.

ETS have also recently donated other materials and tools to The Shed. Donations like these will allow us to grow and better serve the local community.

With the docking saw and other equipment available, it’s never been a better time to join The Entrance Men’s Shed and work on a personal or community project.

First equipment for The Shed

Committee members from The Entrance Men’s Shed are starting to bring equipment to The Shed, including our first substantial piece of equipment: a band-saw, which can be seen in the images below. The toolboxes in the image below contain our first hand-tools, with more arriving on a regular basis.

In the kitchen area we have tea and coffee making supplies and in the workshop area and table and chairs. Although not as impressive as tools and equipment, these facilities support shed members and visitors in having a quiet cuppa and chat about shed projects or just life’s ups and downs. This in turn helps to reduce social isolation in the local community–a key mission of The Shed.

Location of The Entrance Men’s Shed

For visitors to The Shed, The Entrance Men’s Shed is located in The Entrance Community Centre, 15 Battley Ave, The Entrance. Building F.

When the shed is open the Community Centre car-park is also open, so please feel free to drop by and say hello.

Visitors from Mingara

The Entrance Men’s Shed hosted visitors from Mingara this morning: Dave Betts and John Millard. The were there for a tour of the newly opened facility and to meet members of The Shed Committee.

Coincidentally, this is the first opportunity for the new key-holders to open the shed and test the alarms. We’re pleased to report everything went smoothly.



Opening day!

It’s opening day at The Entrance Men’s Shed! The new facility looks wonderful in its landscaped setting at The Entrance Community Centre.

The Committee can report the alarms and entry procedures worked well. Andrew from Wyong Shire Council dropped by to take us through the entry and departure checklists.

There’s plenty to setup at the new shed, so if anyone has sturdy benches, outdoor furniture or a jug or an urn we’d love to hear from them. More equipment and amenities are coming for members and volunteers, so in the meantime we will have to make do.

If you are coming to The Shed please BYO chair.