Happy returns to very happy owners
Maidenhead Repair Café marks busy year of repairing and reusing
Maidenhead Repair Café is hoping to run more frequent sessions now it is seeing in its first-year anniversary.
The repair café – a place where visitors can get their bits and bobs repaired for free – started running out of Maidenhead Library last year.
Open once a month, the café helps the borough’s most conscientious inhabitants get more green-savvy and handy at repairing and reusing items.
Its 10 volunteers busy themselves with repairing everything from old toys, clothes and more than a few vacuum cleaners.
Some of most unusual items they’ve fixed have been a 1920s perfume bottle and a decorative metal parrot. The cafe has also been able to use 3D printed parts to patch things up.
The Repair Café has been popular with parents wanting to show their children the old ways of make-do-and-mend.
One year on, the group’s
volunteers are chomping at the bit to expand and offer more help – and also get started on some workshops to teach people how to get fixing at home.
Gabi Costa, who set up the Repair Café, said the events are ‘growing’ and are a hit with parents wanting to encourage their children to learn how to repair their toys and clothes at home.
“We always have vacuum cleaners to fix,” said Gabi.
“People are really concerned about things going to waste and not throwing things away.”
“We’ve got some local people who come more than once – it’s good to see the community getting to know each other, getting young people to participate in repairs and seeing them get into it.”
Recently, the café’s volunteers worked with Artspiration School of Drawing and Painting. Children made doorstops and other items out of spare material otherwise destined for landfill.
Moving forward, the Repair Café would like to have a dedicated space for children to take things apart and learn more about them.
It would also like to run more workshops to teach people how to patch things up.
“We’re exploring the potential to move to a bigger location, somewhere more permanent, and have the Repair Café more often, weekly or biweekly,” Gabi said.
The Café is also interested in getting more volunteers, which will allow us to hold it more often.
Maidenhead Repair Café operates out of Maidenhead Library on the second Saturday of the month, from 10am until 3pm. People can book in advance, or they can just walk in.
Those interested in volunteering should contact the Repair Café at repair.maidenhead@gmail.com