Lismore MP Janelle Saffin was on hand to thank Raymond Terrace Men’s Shed for making three $6000 donations to Lismore community organisations helping the city recover from the floods earlier this year.

Raymond Terrace Men’s Shed President Bob Bull and Treasurer Frank Seysener today (Monday, June 27) travelled to Lismore to present a total of $18,000 to the Lismore Men & Community Shed, the Koori Kitchen and Resilient Lismore.

Mr Bull said the money originally was raised in 2019 to fund a tour of their members – talented musicians who play in a band – to drought-stricken towns in the North-Western New South Wales but Covid lockdowns intervened.

“We wondered what to do with the money and we turned to Lismore,” Mr Bull said. “That’s when we rang Janelle and she put us in touch with these community groups.” 

Lismore Men & Community Shed President Don Abrahams said: “We are really thankful to the Raymond Terrace Men’s Shed for this support.

“There are more men’s sheds in Australia than McDonalds. They are an important part of any community,” Mr Abrahams said.

“We now have young people working in our shed through NorthTrack and this will support them too.”

“We have had support from men’s sheds all over Australia as far as Cairns. They are small sheds but they still care and give all they can.” 

Koori Kitchen organiser Chelsea Claydon said: “This will help us so much at the kitchen. We have provided roughly 10,000 meals a week since the floods. 

This will also help people’s mental health as we provide a safe place for people to come and eat in Lismore.” 

Resilient Lismore’s Elly Bird said: “We really value this support as we can use the funds to give targeted support to where we know we need to send it.

“Working with the men’s sheds has been great as we really value practical support and solutions at Resilient Lismore,” she said.