The Grande Prairie Men’s Shed responded to a call for dog houses by local dog shelter- Tsintah Siberian Husky Rescue in a big way this week.
The Men’s Shed operates as a sort of social club for Grande Prairie men to get together, socialize, and work on a variety of projects.
According to Men’s Shed founder Richard Nasedkin, the choice to help out the husky shelter was an easy one as the group is always searching for projects to help the community.
“It’s a lot easier for us to have something to focus on when we’re meeting, so the dog houses are quite doable from a space point of view and it doesn’t take a lot of materials,” he says.
According to Nasedkin, the call for dog houses was put out around Christmas time, and the nature of the shelter provided a unique challenge for the group.
“We first reached out to them over the winter, they weren’t sure what kind of dog house they wanted but they had some certain criteria because she does husky breeds only,” he says. “She wanted to be able to move it around, so it took us a little while to come up with a prototype and we had some materials donated so we made the first dog house.”
The dog houses were constructed using 100 per cent recycled materials, and Nasedkin says the most recent delivery will be the first of many.
“We actually recycled all the materials for this particular dog house and then any future ones the sheeting will be donated, but the bones of it, the two-by-fours and stuff will be from recycled wood,” he says. “Once she decides how many she wants and if she needs to change the dimensions a little bit, we’ll come up with a plan, we’re going to do some work this Spring and pre-cut a lot of the boards and all the members will have a sort of assembly line and we’ll crank out as many as she needs.”
Nasedkin says he is quite proud of the work his group accomplished, and he sees the dog house as an approachable project for all members whether they are new to woodworking or seasoned professionals.
Men’s Shed members Ron Johnson, Ivan Patry, Anka Amertsengel, and Richard Nadeskin made the delivery by hand on March 20th