The shed promotes the positive, emotional and mental wellbeing of many of the facility's male residents.
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“They feel most at home when they have the tools of trade in their hands and enjoy the company of other men, while they work together on their latest combined project,” a Cooinda spokesperson said.
Cooinda Men's Shed's Les Bain said the shed was open to all residents who liked to work with their hands.
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“We’ve been fortunate to have had hand and power tools generously donated to us, so we are lucky we can work on just about anything,” Les said.
“Our men’s shed gets together weekly, or every couple of days during the fine weather, as we really enjoy working outside.
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“We do have a studio apartment where we work, but not so much during winter.”
Les said the group was the brainchild of several residents and it takes on a number of projects.
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“The Cooinda Men’s Shed came about when a group of us boys got our heads together and decided it would be nice to be back on the ‘tools’ again to keep us busy while we had a chat,” he said.
“It really started with Allen ‘Spike’ Jones, who loves to paint and make just about anything.
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“So as a few men arrived at Cooinda, a volunteer got involved to help us get going and came up with a few projects, which we really enjoyed.
Men's shed members are currently working on restoring some furniture.
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“We repair the furniture and then sand it back and either paint or varnish it,” Les said.
“And we all enjoy seeing the results of our hard work.
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“I’d like to thank Cooinda for the opportunity to run our men’s shed and also the health and wellbeing team and volunteers for their time in helping us.”
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