By Marcus Uhe
The sun was shining on the Akoonah Park Men’s Shed’s Christmas gathering on Thursday 15 December as 160 members and partners were in attendance to see off the year.
The function as the first of its kind since 2019 after Covid-19 implications placed complications on scheduling large-scale events.
And to express gratitude to their members for their continued support through a trying couple of years, this year the Shed covered the cost of the function, which was catered by Berwick business Fine Dining Concepts.
Along with traditional Christmas dining options such as Turkey, a spread of barbecue meat and salads was devoured by all in attendance.
Treasurer Peter Mason said that today’s event was one of the brighter moments of the year, supersizing their regular Thursday group meal.
“Pre-Covid-19 we used to have 80 or so along every Thursday,” Mr Mason said. “Thursday was when we, under normal operating conditions have a lunch and everything else.”
“We’ve been running at about 40 when we’ve been open.”
As an organisation that strives to maintain connection and provide a sense of community amongst retirees, committee member Lindsay Harding told Star News that the shed hasn’t been able to properly serve its members as a result of the pandemic.
“As a collective it’s been bloody difficult,” Mr Harding said. “You’ve got guys who have come from working 45, 50, 60 hours a week and go, Monday morning, what do I do? Where do I go?”
“When we’ve had it open, because of the rules, we’ve only been able to have 30 guys at a time.”
So what does a tight-knit community do when their main social outlet is taken away from them?
One initiative was to create an online data base of fitness exercises that the members could do from home, to replace the Friday morning group ‘Fitness and Flexibility’ classes.
Another was President Maurice ‘Maurie’ Hall’s decision for the committee members to work the phones.
“Maurie instigated, brilliantly, that the committee would ring every member,” Mr Harding said. “I think we did that four times, just to keep in contact.
“Some guys have said that, other clubs that they were in, they never heard from anyone.”
With 2022 on the horizon, the committee took the opportunity to look ahead to a bright future the Shed’s 10th year.
Their signature car show, “Classics in the Park” which attracts roughly 500 vehicles to the showgrounds and is one of the shed’s biggest annual fundraisers was yet another Covid-19 casualty.
“We’re planning for that later in the year and fingers crossed we’ll proceed with that,” Mr Mason said. “It’s a great event for the park and for Berwick generally.”
