Men’s Sheds provide great opportunities for building new connections – or restarting old ones. Whether it’s working on a project for the community, or simply having a conversation over a cup of coffee, Sheds offer a supportive space to build relationships.
Case in point: a recent event at Langley Men’s Shed saw a former student reunited with his retired Grade 9 math teacher. Henry Ostermann recently met up with his teacher, Morgan Wilks, at a Langley Men’s Shed meet-up. The Langley Advance Times reported on the reunion.
Ostermann remembered Wilks, who gave him just 53 per cent on a Grade 9 report card at Hugh Boyd Junior Secondary School. “I still remember that mark,” Ostermann laughed. “Math wasn’t my strongest subject.”
And he still had the report card, and school yearbook, as Wilks discovered. “The next day he came by with the report card I gave him back in Grade 9, and it said ‘Henry could do a lot better if he worked a little bit harder’” Wilks told the Langley Advance Times. “I told him he was smart back in Grade 9, but he just had other things on his mind, other than school.”
The two ended up working together to build a high-end coffee table. The table was displayed at the Langley Seniors Resource Centre in November as part of the local Shed showcase.
The Langley Men’s Shed started in 2023 and since then, membership has doubled to 40.
Andre Pienaar, secretary-treasurer of Men’s Shed Langley, said the local shed, which started in 2023, has seen membership roughly double in size over the last 12 to 18 months to about 40. “The notion behind Men’s Shed is, is that men, I’ll say senior men, basically find it much harder to socialize than women” Pienaar commented. “Men working on tools and stuff, they find it much easier to socialize and become friends.”
Read the article and watch a video about the reunion here: https://langleyadvancetimes.com/2025/11/06/video-more-than-50-years-later-former-teacher-and-student-reconnect-to-build-table/