#RepairCafés breathe new life into broken household items, teach people to fix on their own

November 20, 2024

"Twice a month in #EvanstonIllinois, volunteers sit face-to-face with people troubleshooting and diagnosing the symptoms of a beloved but broken household gadget.

"Much like a hospital for all things broken, they're trying to find a way to mend and breath new life into the item.

"The Evanston Repair Café is held every fourth Tuesday and every first Saturday at the Robert Crown Center.

"'The most popular item is our lamps, people always have broken lamps,' said Anne Opila, a co-coordinator of the cafe. 'In the summer, we'll have a lot of fans, we get toasters, we get clocks, we get vacuum cleaners.'

"There are more than 3,000 similar Repair Cafés around the world, with a mission to reduce waste, promote community, and preserve traditional repair skills.

"'Patrons come in and they work together to repair their item. It prevents us from throwing things away that fills up our landfills so that we can continue to use them, and they go on to live a happy life,' said Opila.

"Known as a volunteer #RepairCoach, John Martin is a retired maintenance mechanic working in the general repair section of the café.

"'People are not aware that they can fix things, they figure, the philosophy in this country is buy, buy, buy, if it's not working get rid of it,' explained Martin.

"But with a little help from a handy neighbor or a retired and skilled volunteer almost anything can be fixed.

"'What we're doing here is trying to encourage people to fix stuff themselves and give them the skills and knowledge to be able to not only do it themselves and maybe pass it on to somebody,' said Martin.

"'I have this Smeg toaster, and I dropped it,' explained customer Coco Colin. 'It's such a nice piece I don't just want to throw it away.'

"Beyond general repair, they also have #sewing coaches to help #mend or #hem clothing.

"'On Saturdays, which is our busier day we also have #JewelryRepair, #KnifeSharpening, plant advice, paper conservation, musical instrument advice. So we really bring in all the skills that people are willing to volunteer for and then people can take advantage, they're all free and all available,' said Opila.

'"It's like a mission because there's so many things need to be done for the environment this some little thing i can do,' said Martine."

Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-59135413

Evanston Repair Café
https://www.epl.org/repair/
#SolarPunkSunday #RepairCafes #RightToRepair #FixIt #DIY #RightToRepairMovement #CircularEconomy #RepairCafesIllinois