Queenstown’s Women\u2019s Shed Aotearoa\u2019s new home is on track to be fitted out next month.<\/p>\n
Just three weeks after its steel frame went up at Frankton\u2019s Country Lane, the shed\u2019s already half-built, and is already inspiring a nation-wide movement.<\/p>\n
Founded by Alex van Dam in 2023, the popularity of the nonprofit group\u2019s carpentry workshops for women led to it outgrowing its previous home at MenzShed Arrowtown\u2019s Preston Rd premises.<\/p>\n
Van Dam says seeing the new shed go from concept to reality has been a \u2018\u2018magic\u2019\u2019 feeling.<\/p>\n
She still finds it hard to believe how far the group\u2019s come since she wrote a post on a local social media page three years ago asking if there were women interested in doing carpentry workshops.<\/p>\n
The overwhelmingly positive response prompted her to quit her building job, plan a curriculum and have the first workshop running in August 2023.<\/p>\n
Since then, about 650 women have done her learner and intermediate-level workshops, and she\u2019s now supported by a board of trustees and commercial sponsors.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018It\u2019s quite surreal to think where we started from . . . it\u2019s grown into something bigger than I ever thought was possible.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The workshops are on hold while Van Dam and a small team of tradies build the 80 square metre, relocatable shed on a leased site by Country Lane\u2019s carpark.<\/p>\n
Its $300,000 cost is being funded by grants from the Central Lakes Trust, Community Trust South and the Aotearoa Gaming Trust, as well as support from the Inner Wheel Club of Queenstown and in-kind donations of materials and discounts from local companies.<\/p>\n
A Givealittle page has raised about $18,000 to date to help fund the build and its fitout.<\/p>\n
Van Dam says the new, larger shed provides the opportunity to run more advanced workshops, and to start a membership scheme in which women can work on their own projects.<\/p>\n
A pre-trade course for high school girls who\u2019re considering building apprenticeships is also on the drawing board.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s Shed Aotearoa now has plans to \u2018\u2018go national\u2019\u2019, she says.<\/p>\n
Its success has prompted women from around the country to ask her to start up sheds in their areas.<\/p>\n
She hopes to have another shed operating within two years \u2014 possibly in Christchurch \u2014 before taking the concept to other centres.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018When everything\u2019s fully up and running here, we\u2019ve got a blueprint that we can replicate in other regions.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n