Join the Birthday Bash for Orkney Men’s Shed

By theorkneynews on September 28, 2018 • ( 1 Comment )

Orkney Men’s Shed (OMS) will be ONE YEAR OLD on Saturday

By Andrew Swain

In the week when the Men’s Shed Movement is being celebrated internationally with Men’s Shed Week, Orkney Men’s Shed is celebrating it’s first birthday on Saturday September 29th.

It is just over 3 years since the fateful first meeting when the good folk at VAO gave us the opportunity to meet the guys from Westhill in Aberdeen, the first Men’s Shed in Scotland, and hear all about their experiences.

From those early beginnings there was a steep learning curve to get us to this auspicious event.

Orkney Men’s Shed had a trying time to find appropriate premises in the early days and the committee would like to thank the community, the councillors and the folk at Orkney Council who have all been working behind the scenes to research what could be achieved. In the end it was the kind auspices of the Harcus family that saw the OMS safely installed in Maitland Place last September.

The early days of converting the former fishing shed to its current layout has taken lots of volunteer time and energy and will be ongoing for a wee while yet.

Early Days of Orkney Men’s Shed

Orkney Men’s Shed in 2017 in Finstown clearing and improving their premises. Image credit Nick Morrison

After ( N Morrison)

Some of the members of the Orkney Mens Shed (N Morrison)

In the meantime the shed is set up with a tea/meeting room, a kitchen and facilities, and working space, and early projects have included the new shed at The Blue Door, outdoor musical equipment for Glaitness School and the livestock signs for the County Show-ground – amongst a myriad of others.

Delivering the Shed to the Blue Door Charity Shop

We are proud to have achieved so much in this short space of time and we acknowledge that this could not have got so far so quickly without the staunch support of our families, all our members and those in the community who have donated tools, their time and funds; and most importantly without the hands on help of Edwina and the development team at VAO.

As a self funded group in these difficult times we are grateful for those who have supported us: from the larger organisations including: Age Scotland, Cooke Aquaculture, Orkney Partnership Board Positive Ageing Delivery Group, Orkney Rotary Club, Orkney Seafarer’s Association and RVS Asda, through to each and every member of our 200 club, and everyone who has supported our fund raising events, including a very successful week in the Blue Door last week and at the local Shows.

So we like to invite everybody come along and see what we have done – and maybe even become members – there is no membership fee!