Halesworth has a Compassionate Communities Gathering which aims to bring together various groups in the town that provide some sort of support to people. One of their ideas is to have a remembrance day in early December when wooden hearts that have been decorated and named by adults and children in remembrance of a lost person or pet will be displayed around the town either on railings or on small wooden trees in shop windows. They asked Halesworth Men’s Shed to make the hearts for them. We are also making the trees. Our members have thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to support our community.
We initially produced around 260 hearts of varying sizes made from scraps of plywood that our members found in their own sheds. Someone who saw them then asked for another 150 small hearts to give to school children. You can watch a short video of the project here. We’ve just has another request for even more and I get the feeling that this is not the end!
Hearts are easy things to make from scrap wood, can be used at any time of the year, don’t take up much space to store and do wonders for a Shed’s image. I hope that some of you will be able to support your communities in a similar way.