{"id":136752,"date":"2023-01-18T16:42:58","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T21:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=136752"},"modified":"2023-01-18T17:31:41","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T22:31:41","slug":"lac-brome-mens-shed-breaking-isolation-and-getting-community-involved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/lac-brome-mens-shed-breaking-isolation-and-getting-community-involved\/","title":{"rendered":"Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed: Breaking isolation and getting community involved"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danny Williams decided to kickstart the Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed in 2020 to help senior men break from their isolation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After Williams\u2019 mother passed away, he witnessed his father become lost and seclude himself from picking up any new activities and interests.\u00a0<\/span>Before his passing, Williams\u2019 father sent him a magazine with an article about a Men\u2019s Shed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recognizing that there were mostly likely senior men that were in a similar position in his local community, Williams saw an opportunity to\u00a0 <\/span>to start up a Men\u2019s Shed to bring other men together around different projects and activities. It was also an opportunity to learn, share, grow, support one another, and get community involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed has been on pause since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is getting set to pick back up again with many plans in the works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI basically put a couple of announcements out there. I was skeptical about whether anyone would show up. I was at the D\u00e9panneur Rouge and I called the meeting there for 6:30 p.m. At 6:25, not one person was there. At 6:30 on the button, the doors opened and about 25 guys showed up,\u201d said Williams when recounting how the Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed got started.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed found a space at the community centre in Knowlton and it started a workshop before the pandemic put everything on hold.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After losing the space at the community centre, Williams transformed his garage into a workshop and members of the Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed worked on their projects there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re looking to get back into the swing of things and to collaborate with the community at large.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, we are almost starting from scratch again. What I\u2019m realizing more and more as things go along, it\u2019s just critical to get a space. We almost can\u2019t function without a space,\u201d emphasized Williams.<\/p>\n

One thing about Men\u2019s Sheds is that there is no real function behind it, no real organization behind it, every community is different, explained Williams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are basically just out there to work the community and to work with each other. What I find is that everybody is benefitting in ways that I never could have expected. It\u2019s not just about Men\u2019s Shed anymore,\u201d he noted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Heading into a new year, one of the most important tasks on the agenda for the Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed is starting up a youth program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is a great opportunity for youth to work with the older guys. I\u2019m hoping the older guys can share a lot of wisdom. I think the youth need some guidance and they\u2019re not getting it; they\u2019re just sort of floundering out there,\u201d mentioned Williams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once the group finds a space, Williams said that he wants to bring the Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed and the youth together through different projects and activities, like holding tournaments for example.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to lecture, I want to actually have a relationship with them. There\u2019s not structure for them. (\u2026) There has got to be something that grabs their interest. I know some of it will be carpentry programs, teaching them how to work with tools, playing games with them, stuff like that. It\u2019s going to be a mentorship,\u201d he highlighted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Williams also wants to get a cooking program up and running for the members of the Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to the community centre because they have quite the extensive kitchen over there. (\u2026) Maybe once a week we will go out and buy the groceries, prepare the meals together, eat the meal together, do the cleanup afterwards,\u201d mentioned Williams. \u201cI think it will be a lot more fun cooking together than just sitting down to a meal. The community centre is behind us 100%\u00a0 <\/span>that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making a critical difference in the lives of the men he has worked with, Williams said that he hopes to see future generations continue with the Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed and other groups pop up around the region.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody got a hold of me from Farnham and asked me if I would be interested in starting up a Men\u2019s Shed in Farnham. (\u2026) I think it\u2019s going to become a situation where there are more and more of them; other communities trying to figure out how they can implement it in their own community,\u201d he noted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed first meeting of 2023 will be taking place on Jan. 31 at 6:30 p.m. at the community centre in Knowlton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on the Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview below:\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Danny Williams decided to kickstart the Lac-Brome Men\u2019s Shed in 2020 to help senior men break from their isolation.\u00a0 After Williams\u2019 mother passed away, he witnessed his father become lost and seclude himself from picking up any new activities and interests.\u00a0Before his passing, Williams\u2019 father sent him a magazine with an article about a Men\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":136757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,221,223],"tags":[13831,758,22613,3518,20017,22614,18246,22612,1705,22615,2394,4348,487,5027],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136752"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136774,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136752\/revisions\/136774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136752"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=136752"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=136752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}