Igniting a cause: Border fire station's donation reminder of men's mental health

Fire Rescue Victoria Wodonga Station 76 donated $665 to Wodonga Men's Shed on Wednesday, April 24, from their Movember fundraising.

Wodonga Men's Shed president John Schmidt, said the donation was important in keeping the shed running.

"We really appreciate that," he said.

"Everything we receive here gets put to good use for the benefit of the men in our community, principally.

"It can be used to buy equipment, it can be used to fund an outing, that sort of thing.

"Buying new equipment, parts, consumables, because it costs many thousands of dollars to run this shed, even if we did nothing."

Mr Schmidt has been a member of the shed for about six years, after moving from South Australia to retire in Wodonga.

He said he had always wanted to be a part of a Men's Shed and it has taught him the importance of looking out for others.

"My five or six years of experience now has absolutely reinforced the role of men sheds in the mental health and well-being of particularly older men in our community," he said.

"Collectively, we turn that around and contribute to the community.

"We have plenty of members that join the shed, newly retired, often suffering depression and all sorts of problems like that.

"Within a couple of years, you wouldn't know. It completely changes, it very definitely works."

Leading firefighter of "C shift" Craig Chivers was one of the firefighters to grow out a moustache in November and is glad the donation went to a Border group.

"Through searching through different places around town, we set it on the Men's Shed," he said.

"We think it's a great place, not only for men, I guess, but for that money to go to.

"Because it will help out locally and obviously help out a good cause, because we think the Men's Shed is somewhere where people can come, especially mental health issues, like that.

"They come, settle down, talk, enjoy it."

Mr Chivers said having a place to talk about mental health openly is also an important value at the station.

"We serve the community through our work, but that work is quite demanding, and some of the things we go to can be confronting and there's a lot of mental health, not issues, but there's a big push for mental health in our organisation," he said.

"For us to use the money we've donated locally, it's really important."