Corowa Men’s Shed president Brendan Christy (front left) with Men’s Shed members; Men’s sheds around Australia logged more than 200,000 hours of volunteer participation.
Photo by
Ian Johnson
On Friday, Corowa Men’s Shed joined staff and management from Waldron’s IGA to unveil IGA’s new outdoor seating area, an expansion of their existing café that will allow patrons to grab a bite to eat and soak in the sun this summer.
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Men’s Shed president Brendan Christy cut the ribbon on the day to officially open the area, and he said it’s an open concept designed to work with the café’s service window and take advantage of the sun.
“This is going to be a great asset for IGA,” Brendan said.
“It’s going to get sunny out here, you can get served through their window and sit under the umbrellas.
“The concept was theirs; we worked with them and a few things changed along the way.
“Everything was custom made by us and sent to Albury for powder coating, then we assembled it once the concrete was ready.”
Men’s Shed members and IGA staff celebrated the official opening of the new outdoor dining area on Friday.
Photo by
Ian Johnson
The event took advantage of sunny weather to provide a free sausage sizzle for IGA customers and passers-by cooked up by Men’s Shed members.
The Men’s Shed worked with the supermarket to design and build the outdoor area over the last two years, with final assembly taking six weeks once the concrete slab had been poured and cured.
Owner and manager Craig Waldron said the outdoor area was always part of the original scope of the café, but they wanted to test the waters first to see how the café performed before committing to the expansion.
After the initial success of the café, further upgrades were made to the service counters after Covid to prioritize faster takeaway meals and barista coffee.
“We had some unutilised space there and we were always running out of seating inside,” Craig said.
“We engaged the Men’s Shed to help with the design and do the work for us.
“Where we live, the climate is perfect, who wouldn’t want to sit out here?”
Corowa Men’s Shed was one of 1,379 men’s and community sheds across Australia celebrating Men’s Shed Week last week, and 85 percent of the 60,000 participants said their quality of life had improved since joining their shed.
Men’s Shed Week celebrates the immense impact of Men’s Sheds throughout Australia, and according to the Australian Men’s Shed Association (AMSA) more than 2,000 communities benefit from the work reported by participating sheds.
New national research by AMSA revealed the ripple effect of how Men’s Sheds strengthen men and in turn their communities with more than 96 percent of shed members saying they felt more able to contribute to their community.
Their report said a Men’s Shed is a place where a man can find “somewhere he belongs, keep his skills and experience in circulation, build connections and find opportunities to contribute”.
