The Timaru Prostate Foundation support group visited us during the week and gave a presentation to our members about the importance of being aware of prostate cancer. What checks we can get, when to get them and, if we’re one of the 3000 men in New Zealand unlucky to get the disease, what the treatments are and where we can find help and support. An altogether sobering subject delivered with knowledge and experience from survivors of this dreadful disease.

In return we presented them with $780 which we’ve raised throughout the year from our Saturday morning “bacon butty” smoko breaks. We’re grateful to the lovely people at the Timaru Courier newspaper who sent along Helen and Natasha to report on and photograph this important event. This is the link to their article

https://www.timarucourier.co.nz/news/bacon-butties-raise-hundreds-to-help-fight-prostate-cancer/

Members of Timaru Community Menzshed recently enjoyed a great day out to attend the regional hub meeting at Bishopdale Menzshed in Christchurch. Hub meetings are an opportunity for Shed members across a region to get together at a different venue, meet new sheddies, see how other sheds are organised and gather new ideas for projects and improvements to to our own facilities. This trip was no exception. A lot of time was spent admiring the workshop and especially the dust extraction system at the Bishopdale shed. We will be working hard to see if we can replicate it for our joinery machine room back at Timaru Shed.

Each attending shed gives a brief overview of how they are getting along. There were 16 sheds represented and pretty well all of their spokespeople said the same thing. They were either in the midst of, or just starting on the road to expand their facilities. This demonstrates how popular and well thought of Menzsheds are in our region. They’re becoming a fixture in our communities and are helping a lot of us to stay active and engaged well into our senior years. Of course, just because your getting on a bit doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy an ice cream on the way home.

The 2020 AGM has produced some changes to our Committee for the coming year. Stu Jackson has retired as Chairman and committee member to enable him to concentrate on re-building his photography business following the Covid – 19 lockdown. We also said goodbye to Alan Tonkin and Ray Colvill both of whom also stood down after serving on both the original Steering Group and the Committee formed at last year’s AGM. Thanks to all three of you for your support in helping to get the Menzshed up and running so successfully. Our new Office Holders and Committee is as follows:

Patron & Committee member – Gavin Ladbrook

Chairman – Graham Woods

Vice-Chairman – Mike King

Secretary & acting Treasurer – John Cook

Committee Members, Graham R Taylor, Russ Prien, Adrian Hall, Russ Powell, Alan Roker, and Sid Lockhart.

Probably because of the cold winter’s nights we’re currently experiencing there has been little or no take up by members of the Wednesday evening sessions. We have temporarily suspended this session until further notice.