A new Men’s Shed will be opening in Prince George
“A Men’s Shed is basically a safe place for men to gather, shoulder to shoulder, and support one another,” said Brent Goerz, a founding member of one of the Men’s Sheds in Prince George.
“One of the things that we find is men struggle sometimes creating friends or having friends. They may have connections at work, but as a therapist myself, when I ask somebody, “who’s your support network, who do you talk to about significant things,” and generally they say “my wife,” and I pause. They may have friends they watch sports with or go to the bar with or whatever, but they can’t really be vulnerable with.”
Goerz first got involved with Men’s Sheds after working as a hospital social worker for 17 years, and being burnt out at work.
“I did it until I couldn’t do it anymore, and I had to focus on my own recovery. Being in the helping field, I knew most of the therapists in town, and so I chose to go out of town to see somebody,” he explained.
“There was this amazing therapist in Vanderhoof, so I made a half day of it where I kind of commuted, saw my therapist, and then probably after a few weeks I went ‘hey I think there’s a men’s shed in Vanderhoof’ which is one of the earlier sheds in BC, and so I just started hanging out there.”
He said for the first year and a half, it was just about relating to each other as a human being.
“I kind of said to myself, “Why doesn’t Prince George have one of these,” I kind of had some involvement with starting the first Men’s Shed, that the CMHA has got some funding for, so I was part of that group for a while, and then became a part of expanding into our second group the New Beginnings Men’s Shed,” Goerz said.
“It was funny because the media covered it and we found out there was a third informal shed up the Hart, connected to the Shas Ti Kelly Road retired teachers, and I’m wanting to connect with them as well. It’s a very organic type of concept, people get it once they hear about it and they want to participate.”
The Grand Opening for the new shed will be on November 26th.
“We’ll have a bit of food, we’ll have a gathering, we’ve invited some political dignitaries to attend the event, and we’re basically going to be having a ribbon cutting of our new location.”
He said the plan is to put one in Williams Lake as well.