Le Grand Courtil’s giant wooden owl set to offer up ‘Wise Words’
A GIANT owl has been turning heads at Le Grand Courtil extra care home, after being designed, built and installed by the Men’s Shed.
The oversized wooden bird stands in the foyer with outstretched wings, in a bid to encourage feedback from tenants about all aspects of the housing facility.
‘We’ve gone for a fun and creative solution,’ said Marcel Lenormand, the project lead for the Men’s Shed outreach project, which was invited to create a feedback station for both residents and visitors.
The avian sculpture has a six-foot wingspan, under the title ‘Wise Words’ and features two writing desks – one under each wing – designed to be used while standing or sitting.
A signboard is designed to display a new question each week, asking about a range of issues from the care provided at the centre, to the types of cakes tenants would like to see at the cafe.
Response cards are dropped into the integrated postbox to be collected weekly.
In addition to written responses, people who have difficulty writing can leave a voice response on a custom-built voice recorder. Each week the data is collated, passed on to the relevant agency and presented back to the community for everyone to see.
Because of Covid, the project has taken longer than anticipated but Mr Lenormand said the men of the outreach project had done all of the work themselves and shared many laughs along the way.
‘We’ve really enjoyed creating the “Wise Words” owl,’ he said, ‘it’s now over to the community to engage with it.’
