March 5, 2024 - Good news! The Shed’s electrical installation has been inspected and approved, now comes the task of assembling, reassembling, positioning, and calibrating our various pieces of woodworking machinery. The Shed sends a huge thank you to Jeff Neihart Electrical Services. Also, special thanks to Ron Neihart and Jim Brady and to Kendall Electric for its donation of electrical hardware. The Shed also is indebted to Lowe’s for donating flooring tile for our social area and plywood that has been installed on the walls surrounding our work area. It takes a lot of man-hours to set up shop. Here shedders Blain, Lee lead the effort in building tool stands and shelving.
March 5, 2024 - Sporting their new yellow polo shirts, members of the Grand Traverse Men’s Shed made their presence known at the Northwest Michigan Home Builders Association Expo March 9-10. Shedders manned a non-profit booth on Saturday, sharing their experiences and information about the group with interested parties. Another trio of Shedders volunteered Sunday to take tickets and direct the public to the more than 100 vendors participating.
March 5, 2024 - It takes a lot of man-hours to set up shop. Here shedders Blain, Lee lead the effort in building tool stands and shelving.
February 7, 2024 - Shedders have begun the detailed process of unpacking and setting up storage for our hand tools and finding logical places for our bigger shop equipment.
Below, Tom Woodworth, Val Losse, and Mike Hall examine and sort tools. Gary Wertz gives Brad Cotner a hand hanging pegboard while Jim Novak and Paul Waterstradt work on the newly-acquired dust collector. Or, is it two Shedders just collecting dust?
THANKS TO ALL OUR HARD WORKING SHEDDERS! Not too long now!
January 23, 2024 - After scrubbing, washing, filling pits and cracks our shop floor was ready for painting. Several Shedders were on hand to handle the work. Once the shop floor is done we'll move on to the social area. Including the floor, cabinets and appliances. Stay tuned!
January 8, 2024 - Shedders work on preparing the concrete floor of our new shop in the Oak Shore Commons. The new floor first must be thoroughly scrubbed and washed. Once it's dry, any pits or cracks need to be filled and finally, painting with industrial shop floor finish.
December 21, 2023 - We received long awaited news this week that a certificate of occupancy was issued for our new home. Word came from Daniel Siettas, Director of Operations for Chappelle Development, the company behind the redevelopment of the old Kmart and Tom's stores in Acme into Oak Shore Commons.
It may not look like much now, but in the coming weeks we will be finishing our shop and social areas with new flooring, cabinets and more.
November 30, 2023 - When Shed President Jim Novak stopped at Penske Truck Rental to pick up the box truck we needed for our move to our new home, he was incredibly surprised when Kristy Raska of the North US 31 South location, generously donated the truck rental cost, the gas, half of the insurance and even the tie down straps. It seems Kristy had seen our website and liked what she saw. Jim, and all of the Shedders are very grateful for this early Christmas present. When you're in the market for a truck rental, we heartily recommend Penske Truck Rentals. Photo by Jan Michael Stump, Traverse City Record Eagle.
November 14, 2023 - Jamie Laferriere, owner of Dave’s Garage in Traverse City, donated $500 to Men’s Shed to help with our moving expenses.
THANK YOU DAVE'S GARAGE!
November 7, 2023 After 4 months the Shedders have finished their biggest project to date. Refurbishing the National Cherry Festival's traffic barricades. The process required repairing, sanding and applying two coats of paint to the 300 pieces. The Festival Crew picked up the last of the barricade pieces on November 14th. Now were getting ready to move to the Oak Shore Commons as we close out the month. Read more on our PROJECTS page.
October 31, 2023 - The Men's Shed was the happy recipient of the monthly Precision Cares program that actively supports non-profit organizations and events that make a difference in the community. Every month Precision Plumbing and Heating Systems donates $1,000 to a local charity or cause based on nominations they received from customers and people throughout our area. THANK YOU, Precision!
October 31, 2023 - Just after learning the hard news the Shed was going to have to raise $12,000 to cover electrical upgrades in their future home, help was at hand. In November the Shedders will be moving to Oak Shore Commons in Acme (the former Kmart location) but will need to install additional electrical wiring for their 220V shop tools.
When the developer, the Strathmore Real Estate Group, heard of the situation they pressed into service one of their major suppliers, and all around good guy, Chris Ostrowski of Builders FirstSource in Grawn. Chris immediately saw the possibilities for the club and thought it would be helpful to have Jim Novak and Steve Morse join him on his regular Monday appearance on the Vic McCarty Show on WTCM-AM TALK. We received lots of positive feedback from listeners, but Chris didn’t stop there. He invited our board members to the Builders FirstSource showroom for a Halloween Lunch and a walk around the warehouse. During lunch Chris was enthusiastic about the possibilities of help and support from builders and suppliers in the area, and offered several excellent suggestions as to how to move forward.
THANK YOU , CHRIS!
July 14, 2023 - Terry Benton from the Strathmore Real Estate Group, the people behind the redevelopment of the old Kmart location in Acme, stopped by to give us an update on the project. Originally the plan called for the Men's Shed to move into it's new 2400 sq ft space in April of this year. But like most large scale projects like Oak Shore Commerce, delays occur, so in an incredible gesture to our chapter, the Strathmore Group has provided a temporary place for the Shed to reside until the planned opening in October. Thank You Strathmore!
June 15, 2023 - Our chapter owes a big thank you to Val Losse who filed a grant application with Cherryland Cares (Cherryland Rural Electric). Val received an approval from it's board of directors for a donation of $3,000.00 Dawn M. Garrock, Executive Administrative Assistant of Cherryland Cares came to the shed to hand deliver the check. THANK YOU VAL & CHERRYLAND ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE! 
June 4, 2023 - Jim Novak shares his story of discovering the Men's Shed and starting a chapter here in Traverse City. "I was planning to sell my printing company and retire. I saw a TV special about the Irish Men's Shed movement and reached out to them to get information about starting a Shed here. I didn't even know the US Shed movement was just starting. The Irish Shed gave me some good information and referred me back to the US Association. I was already convinced there would be a benefit to opening a Shed.
Then, my neighbor's wife passed away and I could see him declining quickly. He became isolated and his health started to suffer. I was watching the effects of loneliness on a formerly vital man."
9 People all Immediately Agreed to be on the Board
"I asked 7 guys from church - and 2 of their spouses - to meet with me and presented the Shed concept. At the end of that meeting, all nine had signed on to help launch it. They called in a friend who is an attorney to help us write our By-Laws and Articles of Incorporation (pro-bono). The Grand Traverse Men's Shed got its official (legal) start in 2016; we also received our 501c3 status then. We established a Board of Directors, and held planning meeting after planning meeting at my house. Sometimes, we met in the garage, sometimes in the driveway. We had good ideas but were till just kind of floundering as a start-up.... READ MORE
May 23, 2023 - It may not be pretty, but the Men's Shed is moving ahead. We finished moving everything we own into our temporary Rennie School Road location. Strathmore Realty Group has generously provided a place until our new home is ready (see below). The work will pay off by saving the Shed several thousand in storage fees.
For now the Shed will be open from 9 AM until noon Tuesdays and Thursdays. More to come.
We are now in our new home in the Oak Shore Commons in Acme. The street address is 6469 US 31, Williamsburg, MI 49690. In the meantime, our mailing address is 3171 Lamp Post Ln Traverse City, MI 49685. We are open from 9 AM until noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
We hope to expand those hours soon. Stay tuned!
