March 2025 Newsletter Part One

1. Welcome to March’s newsletter. At the end of January I took down our empty sweet tubs to ASDA for recycling and fund raising for MacMillan Cancer Trust. Thank you to all who ‘troughed through’ tubs of chocolates, all in the cause of charity. It is a charity that is close to home at WMS. Hopefully as we approach March we can start to see some better weather to enable us to kick-start our external project of the lean to over the recreation space. We also will be replacing the decking as it has become rather slippery over the years. We have already received the first consignment of donated decking and it was all hands in to off load from John’s Landie. Look out for dates and I hope we can continue the team-man ship displayed so far with the work parties.

As you know we are always looking at grant and funding sources to assist us financially for the projects we have on going. Late last year I applied for a grant from the MORRISONS FOUNDATION. There is a strong demand for financial assistance from various organisations and only 10% of applicants are successful. I was recently informed that we didn’t make the magical 10% this time. We will remain proactive in looking for funding streams though. HBC lottery update: With our sixteen tickets held by four of us, up to 22nd Feb 25, we have been donated £200:00 from the fund. The more tickets we hold the greater the donation. It’s just £1:00 per ticket and a chance to win £25:00 or on occasions larger prizes. You would be really helping the Shed financially by holding tickets to increase our share of the HBC charity pot. We are also now registered with ‘easyfundraising, which means you can raise FREE donations for us every time you shop online. Over 8,000 retailers will donate to various registered charities i.e. WMS, when you use easyfundraising to shop with them – at no extra cost to yourself!

These donations really mount up and make a BIG difference to us, so we’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment to sign up and register WMS. It’s completely FREE and only takes a moment. You can find our easyfundraising page at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/waterlooville-mens-shed

2. We have had a real buzz amongst members as we get back in to the swing of projects. In the February newsletter I mentioned the two commissions we took on. First was the missing jigsaw piece (top left corner piece) Phillip Griffiths worked his magic and manufactured the missing piece. He also made a key so the jigsaw could be made using a picture. Well Done Phil, we have a very happy customer.The second was the book library for Denmead. Two of our artisans John Skerratt and David Sy supported by other Shed members, got to work as soon as was possible in the workshops. It wasn’t long before it started to take shape. I’ll keep you updated.

Another project I was able to catch up with last month was a new front gate being put together by Ian Marshall using his skills to make a very robust gate getting the angles just right. To the right we have Ian with his rather impressively finished front gate. Nice one Ian.

A more concerning project however was being worked on by John Boden. By the way, good to see you back up the Shed John! I don’t know what to think about this one, the jury is still out as far as I’m concerned! John has made a beer or wine container, cunningly disguised as a water jerry can. I’ll leave you to decide if John is hiding something or not.

What ever it is though, John looks pleased with the result!