St Oswald ’ s Stall at Castlemilk Fun Day
St Oswald ’ s Church and its Men ’ s Shed and Cherish Programme were represented at Castlemilk Fun Day on Saturday , 11 th June . Myself and volunteer Sean Scally manned the St Oswald ’ s stall at this busy , vibrant event .
It was clear from the off that this was going to be a loud , energetic kind of day . As we set up the stall , local guitar band “ Ned Zeppelin ” blasted through their sound check . Loud rock music at 10 am on a Saturday morning isn ’ t everyone ’ s cup of tea , but it got the adrenaline going .
We had lots of gifts ( kindly donated by St Oswald ’ s congregation ) to give away and used these as a way to draw people in to conversation . We also used them to reward people who took part in our “ Wee Referendum ”.
This was a quick bit of research to find out a Men ’ s Shed would be viable in this area . The poll simply asked people ; “ Is there enough for men to do in this area ?” Voting was carried out by dropping a counter into the “ Yes ” or “ No ” boxes on our stall . The result ? 57 people thought that there was not enough for men to do versus 13 who thought there was . Or , 81 % thought there should be more for men , whilst only 19 % thought things were OK .
As well as the wrapped “ mystery ” gifts we had a lucky dip for kids ( unwrapped gifts in a big bag ). This resulted in the same wee gang making multiple trips to our stall in ever-increasing numbers as word got around ! ( Some grown-ups departed from the “ lucky-dip ” spirit to have a right good rummage around in the bag until they found a gift they liked ) We gave away copies of the church magazine , leaflets about the “ Cherish ” Programme & Banner Workshops run by Linda Hardie and displayed photos of the banners .
Our stall included some old woodwork tools and items turned from wood . This drew in some older men who recognised the tools and could tell us what they were for . A young boy of about 9 yrs old showed a great interest in the woodworking stuff , so was gave him a sycamore bowl to take home .
8 local men signed up to register their interest and hopefully attend our Men ’ s Shed group meetings . Several local workers & politicians liked our idea and a nice “ Community Champion ” lady called Elizabeth from ASDA told us we could apply to them for a grant .
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