They don’t profess to be Bob The Builder or The Fixies, but John Ivey and Warwick Pollard are sharing their handiwork and knowledge with children at Sonas Coolbellup.
The pair, who are members of the Fremantle Men’s Shed, are collaborating with Sonas Early Learning & Care as part-time gardeners and ‘fix-it’ men – and creating spontaneous creative learning opportunities for children through the odd jobs they undertake.
The kids are very interested in what we do. They generally gather around and ask a million questions. ‘What are you doing that for?’ What’s this? What’s that? How does that work?
John Ivey, Sonas gardener & Fremantle Men’s Shed member
John said the children at Sonas Coolbellup had shown a keen interest in their work, which included repairing broken toys, building flatpack furniture, creating a little blackboard area, painting, maintenance and installing hand towel and soap dispensers.
“Warwick and I have been working as a team for Sonas since 2020,” John said.
“The kids are very interested in what we do. They generally gather around and ask a million questions. ‘What are you doing that for?’ What’s this? What’s that? How does that work?
“They’re good kids, and all very inquisitive.”
An avid gardener, John said he initially applied for a few hours of gardening work at Sonas, and the duo was now also helping with odd jobs and landscaping work at new centres.
“I retired when I was 60 so I’m just doing this for a bit of fun. I do lots of different things but I like gardening so when I saw there was a gardening job going, I thought I’d give it a go,” he said. “The attention and interactions we have with the kids are a bonus.
“I’m involved with the Coogee Community Garden, I swim with the Port Beach Polar Bears, I play in a ukelele group, I learn Italian, a bit of gardening and go to the Men’s Shed. Apart from that, I’m very happily being retired.”