By Mark Winston On the afternoon of March 14th, I received a call from Clare Ansberry of the WSJ. She told me she wanted to learn more about the US Men’s Shed Movement. I was driving, so we ended up speaking for about 20 minutes before we started losing contact. Before the contact was lost, we agreed we would continue our talk the next day. The next day we spoke for an hour. I learned that this article was going to be fairly comprehensive in nature. We spoke about what USMSA had been doing and how we became involved in the US. Then we spoke about many of the sheds and what they were up to. We spoke about why there was a need for Sheds. I gave her a brief history of the movement internationally and why the need manifested in Australia and Ireland, etc, and that men were men no matter the country they were living in. I shared the fact that in the US we have a population much larger than the other countries, some of which have more than 2,000 sheds. Clare thought this a very compelling story and decided they would send people off to various sheds to learn more from the ground level. This aspect of her research was impressive; I knew the WSJ was invested in the what , why’s and how’s of shedding. Clare and I had a remarkable collaboration and spoke a couple of times subsequent to the article’s publication. She wanted to know if they captured the true spirit of shedding. They did. The article was first published digitally and then also appeared the next day in the paper edition. After the story appeared, we were contacted by hundreds of people - both men and women - who wanted to start sheds. Usually, folks contact us who want to join a Shed, but these WSJ readers wanted to start a Shed. We scheduled Zoom information sessions to The Wall Street Journal Features the US Men’s Shed Movement 200+ people show interest in starting a Shed
accommodate the questions in April and May (and will continue to host them monthly.) We are still being contacted daily for additional information. T his type of exposure and enthusiastic response speaks to the enormous need for Sheds in the US. At USMSA, we have never been busier. The sum of all this activity will improve the lives of many and even save the lives of some. The future is bright and we embrace it. Please help spread the word to everyone you know about what Sheds mean to all people. Thank you Clare and WSJ for sharing our story with the nation!
The Shed | June 2023
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