For our meeting last Wednesday, President Mario asked me to expand on potential ideas for new projects at our project shed.Our club is well known for constructing and distributing low-cost ‘rough terrain’ wheelchairs, designed to provide the gift of mobility to disabled people in developing countries. We have about 60 Volunteers who work at our project shed making those wheelchairs. Their talents and levels of competence are 'off the charts'.
I have advocated for using some of these talents to construct items that could help our local communities. Like many Australians, I’m concerned about the number of people in our community who, often through no fault of their own, find themselves in the dreadful position of being unable to afford or obtain the basic requirements for themselves and their families.
Thus, at Wednesday's meeting I put forward two ideas where I could see our club assisting local people who are struggling:
1. Construction of 'Tiny Houses’
2. Manufacture of coffins
At this stage, all I was after was agreement to look into these projects. There was almost 100% support to pursue these ideas. Additionally, a guest (and potential new member) contributed with the idea of building raised vegetable gardens in kitset form.
On reflection, I believe that the 'tiny houses' idea, at this stage, might be a 'bridge too far', but is still worth investigation.
To take this to the next level, my request for participants in a steering committee produced several volunteers (Tulip has their names). Bevan Sim, who is in charge of the project shed, suggested that we also involve some of our volunteers.
As they say, from small acorns, oak trees grow. This is the beginning of what I believe will ensure our great club continues.