Repair Cafe offers broken appliances a new life
Repair Cafe volunteers restore gadgets and mend clothes in need of attention
Jana Jedlic has had a broken espresso machine sitting in a box in her home for two years, so when she stumbled across the Facebook event page for a Repair Cafe in Regina, she immediately thought of the once-loved machine.
“I used to use it all the time and would have my friends (over) and it would be like my little café in my house, but when we moved here we had it in the box for a while and then when we went to use it, for some reason the espresso didn’t push through,” she said.
At the Repair Cafe on Saturday, a steady trickle of people came in and out of the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre with all sorts of items in hand that needed repairs, including Jedlic with her espresso machine.
“I’m glad to take advantage (of the Repair Cafe) because we’ve had this and we don’t want to get rid of it, but on the other hand, it’s not serving any purpose,” she said.
She brought the machine over to volunteer Roy Dorwart, a self-described “jack of all trades” who is handy in both electronics and woodworking.
While not everything can be fixed on the spot, Dorwart said he can usually at least tell people what kind of new part they might need. Some of the other items people brought to him to be fixed were a coffee pot, a bag sealer and a food processor.
“Somebody who may not know anything about electrical work, they don’t even know how to repair a plug. Well, a lot of people know how to do it, but you just have to find that person. Here’s a place where you can find them,” he said.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of things that people will say, ‘Well I might as well throw this out because I can’t fix it.’ Somebody else might be able to.”
This Repair Cafe was one of 10 similar events happening in cities across the province put on by the
Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council (SWRC) as part of Waste Reduction Week, said volunteer organizer Claire Amundsen. She said the SWRC hopes to make the Repair Cafe at least an annual event if there is enough interest.
Volunteer seamstress Anna Lapierre said the Repair Cafe gives her a way to share her talents with the community while also keeping clothing out of the landfill. By late
Saturday morning she guessed she had fixed around 15 pieces of clothing, ranging from winter boots to a zipper on a pair of jeans to a cardigan.
“I heard that they have it monthly in Prince Albert, so that’s amazing for that community. I would love to see it repeated. I would totally volunteer to do it again,” she said.
Jedlic definitely hopes to see the Repair Cafe become a regular event.
“I think if people know more about it or know to expect it, then before tossing something they might give it a second thought,” she said.
“If we can find ways of avoiding putting things in the landfill, then that’s definitely what we need to be doing.”