Phil Lyons and Jim White are the first members of Masterpiece Southland Meadows' new woodworking club.--NEWS PHOTO KENDALL KING
kking@medicinehatnews.com
Residents and staff at Masterpiece Southland Meadows came together last week to celebrate the launch of the building’s new on-site woodworking shop.
First proposed by Masterpiece owner Tom Garforth-Bles last year, the shop is designed as a place for residents of all abilities to gather, learn and create.
“It’s something that nowhere else really offers for seniors,” Masterpiece lifestyles co-ordinator Alysha Isberg told the News. “(Woodworking) is something that so many residents did at one time or another in their lifetime. So why not give them an opportunity to enjoy (it)?”
Residents with experience in woodworking are able to use the 924 square-foot, full-equipped shop in their free time to create whatever they’d like, so long as they pass a skills assessment and safety test prior.
Residents new to woodworking are invited to join learning sessions soon to be launched by the building’s new club, which is headquartered at the shop.
“We’re hoping we’re going to get a number of people down here,” said Phil Lyons, Masterpiece resident and one of the club’s first two official members. “It doesn’t matter if they’ve had experience or not.”
A life-long carpenter who spent much of his professional life teaching industrial arts, Lyons is excited to share his passion with other residents; as is Jim White, the other of the club’s initial members.
“There’s a lot of things that I think could develop out of this place if people are interested,” said White, who has 12-plus years of experience in woodworking having formerly worked at Medican Construction’s woodworking shop.
Already the pair has completed a multitude of projects, the largest being the shop’s own cabinetry – something they volunteered to help with in an effort to speed up the opening.
“We knew they were working on this workshop and they were getting it up, and going kind of slow, so we volunteered our time to build it,” White said.
White and Lyons each designed and built cabinets on one side of the shop. And while the pair agree such projects can be challenging at points, they both enjoy creating lasting pieces.
White and Lyons also designed and built a wooden sculpture to commemorate the retirement residence’s fifth anniversary, which now sits in the building’s main lobby.
While the shop is now open to White, Lyons and other residents experience in woodworking, staff are still working to create programming and implement safety procedures, but expect to have such in place shortly.
