Swaffham Men's Shed donate bug hotel to Sporle child care team
A market town community group has been finding new ways of carrying on its activities during the pandemic-including a new project which is being enjoyed by local children.
Swaffham Men's Shed are making progress to find premises for a workshop and social area, but have continued to serve the community at this difficult time of crisis.
Having posted about their community project to build a bug hotel out of pallets for the Community Gardens in Campingland, the Men's Shed team were contacted by other interested parties.
Lynsey Burton of Little Angels child care in Sporle contacted Men's Shed and asked them to make a bug hotel for the children, which was duly accepted.
Swaffham Men’s Shed chairman Howard Cardus handed over the bug house, which was made by member Dave Jordan, to Mrs Burton, who said the children would "absolutely love it".
The group are also working on a project to remove bamboo and build raised beds for a sensory garden at the Iceni Centre in the town.
On the Men's Shed group's recent activity, Mr Cardus said: “We are also encouraging members to use their own workshops or sheds to have ‘pop-up sheds’ where two or three members can get together within the social distancing guidelines to meet and make items such as the bug boxes, bird houses, hedgehog homes and other items.
"We hope to be able to have a market stall to sell these at some point in the future, to raise funds for tools and equipment, and generally raise our profile in the town.”
The group has applied for a stall at the Swaffham Christmas Market on Sunday, December 6 from 10am to 4pm. Dave Jordan of the group has been busy making wooden Christmas tree designs for the stall, which will require volunteers to help run it.
The main interests of the group so far have been towards a woodworking environment although the group hopes to expand on this over time and include other hobbies.
Swaffham Men’s Shed is open to anyone over the age of 18 and those interested in joining can contact them by emailing info@swaffhammensshed.co.uk or through the Swaffham Men’s Shed Facebook page or website at www.swaffhammensshed.co.uk/.
The Men's Shed role is described as: "To provide an environment where people can come and socialise and learn new skills whilst completing projects to benefit the local community, personal projects can also be completed using the facilities."
