Submitted by Gerry Tilmans
I run into people who have much more experience than I have in writing these articles, and they tell me that whoever is doing our public relations is doing an excellent job. The point in mentioning this is, even a short article can be challenging at times. Other days it seems to flow easily when there is a lot to tell you about. All was quiet until this week.
On Monday August 16, Brian Swanton of Lion’s Head hosted our group to show us his outdoor railway that has been a life-long passion and it really shows in the results. He has been part of a group called Bluewater Railroaders (www.bluewaterrailroaders.ca) building numerous dioramas of life on the Bruce that are on display in Grey and Bruce County.
To give you an idea of the size of this railway system, it has 900 feet of track, and can operate multiple locomotives via remote control at the same time. There are so many buildings built to scale that look authentic. Streetscapes with people, cars, shops, hotels, railway crossings, animals, and pets. There is a water tower, log mill, and a train station. It is a fantastic homage to see what you can teach yourself to learn and do.
Don, Mark and myself attended a meeting with North Bruce Municipality’s Madie Barker who is responsible for Museums and Recreation to talk about a possible grant that could help us fund Lunch and Learn events this fall. The municipality received funding from Ontario’s Senior Active Living Centres. In some towns this has a physical building and is a hub to offer various programs designed to help groups such as ours promote “the health, wellbeing and social connections of older adults”, according to Google’s AI overview. Some of this funding has helped support bus trips, fused glass crafting, exercise classes and more. Bruce Men’s Shed is planning to set up three lunch and learn sessions this fall and more will be announced in the coming weeks.
Please note that our monthly Saturday meetings will resume on September 20th. Every Monday morning we meet for coffee 9am-11am at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 202, 6 Hellyer Road on Highway 6, just north of Ferndale. Feel free to drop in for coffee. Doors open at 8:45. If you would like further information on how to get involved with the Men’s Shed movement, please contact us at brucemensshed@gmail.com or call Gerry at (519) 793–3005.
“Somewhere to Go. Something to Do. Someone to Talk to”.
