On Wednesday, June 26’s episode of Digging Deeper, the News’ Nicola Ceccato spoke to Shepparton volunteer Gary Gray about his long-standing contributions to multiple Men’s Sheds.

This year, Gary won the 2024 Long-Serving Volunteer award at the Greater Shepparton Volunteer Recognition Awards.

Here’s an excerpt of what he said in the recent podcast.

Nicola: Gary, you got the 2024 Long-Serving Volunteer award at the Greater Shepparton Volunteer Recognition Awards. Congratulations to start off with. Did you expect it?

Gary: No, I was pretty chuffed with getting the nomination. I thought it was good that somebody took the time to suss it out, and sit down and work it out and then submit it. So I was pretty happy with that. We went along just to enjoy the presentation night and have a good night. Yeah, so it was a lovely surprise.

Nicola: You've been doing a lot of work with the Men's Shed and advocating for men's health. Can you touch on what you've been doing with Men's Sheds to start with?

Gary: I am involved with quite a few Men's Sheds around the Greater Shepparton area as treasurer and the involvement has been starting them up, making sure they can run fairly efficiently, making sure that all the government rules and legislation is supplied and done properly. But it also means the good part is attending the days. So I've been doing that for about 18 years now.

Nicola: When did you first start participating with Men’s Sheds?

Gary: I started the Shepparton Men's Shed at the end of 2006. It grew out of a little group of blokes that met at Vision Australia and did nothing but sit around. And then we slowly, over a couple of months, moved into being a Men's Shed.

I’m out at Dookie Men's Shed. That's been going for 12 years now. I started that along with a bloke called John Sims in 2012 and that's been going well. That’s in a council facility at the footy oval.

I’m also involved in the Shepparton East Men’s Shed as well.

Nicola: What has been the most rewarding thing about being part of the Men's Shed?

Gary: It's the immediate feedback that you get more so for Men's Sheds than some of the other organisations I volunteer for. The reward is to see what they get out of it.

You're making a difference straight away and to see them walk out with a smile. Just the fact that we might finish at 3pm, and they won't go home, and you've got to kick them out the door because they're enjoying it says a lot.

Nicola: What is the age range? Is there a generational benefit where everyone is learning from each other?

Gary: It's not just old blokes. So a couple of the groups I'm with have 30-year-olds and 20-year-old people.

If you go to the Men's Shed sites, you'll see that we're a venue for learning new skills and teaching others your skills, and that's true. A lot of that goes on impromptu; somebody will say, ‘how the hell do you do this?’ And somebody will put up their head and say, ‘I'll show you’.

We also have great contact with the schools. Out at Dookie, I'm running a program, and it's coming up to 12 months of Grade 3, 4, 5 and 6 kids. They come across on a Friday afternoon and do two hours of woodwork.

We also have some kids from Shepparton East who aren’t school-orientated, and they do a bit of woodwork which the school doesn’t do.

Nicola: Do you think these spaces provide a good place for men to talk and discuss things and foster good mental health?

Gary: Most certainly, we say, a little tongue-in-cheek, under the table is the health of the blokes. Some of the blokes think they're going to learn a skill or fix up the table, but ultimately, under the table is the health benefits.

Women might sit together at CWA or at a craft group, and they'll talk about things family-wise or health-wise, but blokes aren't that good at coming out with what's going wrong. And the emphasis behind the Men’s Shed, it's a beautiful little phrase, that the blokes working shoulder-to-shoulder will discuss these things.

Nicola: It sounds like you're a very big advocate for volunteering in the community. What's your advice to people that might be thinking about volunteering?

Gary: I think what I would say is: one, what everybody says, just do it. Two, I would say it doesn't have to be a total life commitment, like myself and some others that I know. You might just volunteer for half a day at a local Vinnies or FoodShare. If you're making a difference, whether it's three hours, or in my case, four days, it doesn't matter. You're making a difference.

To hear more from Gary, you can listen to the full podcast here.

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