Repair Café returns to Swift Current to help residents, reduce waste
Swift Current area residents can start looking for broken or unused items in their homes to take to the city’s upcoming Repair Café.
The next Swift Current Repair Café takes place in the Stockade building at Kinetic Park on March 21, and some changes have been made to create an even more successful event than the inaugural one.
Shann Gowan is a member of the volunteer group that hosted the initial event to help people repair items and keep stuff out of the landfill.
“I want people to start looking around their house and tucking those things they would like to get fixed into a box by the door and bring them with them on March 21,” she said. “If they look around their house, they’ll find things. I’ve had lots of people say I don’t know if I have anything broken and then they actually go walk around the house. So people just have to walk around, have a look and then start collecting them.”
The inaugural Repair Café in Swift Current was held last October as part of a province-wide initiative during Waste Reduction Week to raise awareness about ways to reduce waste. Seven other communities in Saskatchewan hosted a similar event on the same day for residents to reduce waste by getting their broken items fixed for free by volunteer repair experts.
According to Gowan the Swift Current event was the most successful one in the province. There was a total of 98 repairs during the six hours of the event, and the success rate of repairs was 92 per cent. Most of the repaired items were small appliances (33) and electronics (25). The volunteer group in Swift Current received many positive comments from visitors about the event.
“We’re pretty proud of that and I’m pretty sure this one will be even bigger,” she said. “Everybody that came were thrilled with what they learned and what repairs were done and how the event went.”
The Repair Café on March 21 will have a similar format to the previous one. There will be volunteer repair experts to fix items free of charge and to show visitors how to do their own repairs.
“The goal of the Repair Café is to teach you how to do your own repairs,” she said. “It’s not so much to bring your stuff and we’ll fix it for you, it’s bring your stuff and let’s fix that together.”
The intention is to help people to move away from a throwaway culture, which causes many items that can be fixed to end up in the landfill.
“We’re trying to stop things from going into the landfill that are still in decent shape, but one little aspect of it is broken,” she said. “You’ll be shocked how many things came into the Repair Café and all the experts did was tweak a few buttons and move a few things and it worked again. Lots of times you just have to spend a few minutes to try and diagnose what the problem is, and those things end up in the landfill, and that’s not good for anybody.”
The original Repair Café took place in Amsterdam in 2009, and from the Netherlands this grassroots initiative has spread to different countries. There are now over 1,400 repair cafés across the world. Gowan believes one repair at a time can help to make a difference for the environment.
“The more things you can teach people to fix themselves and the more you teach people that they should think about fixing it, that helps everything,” she said. “Things just won’t end up in the garbage the same as they used to.”
There will some additional repair options at the upcoming Repair Café in Swift Current. There will be volunteer repair experts for ceramics and dishes, as well as for paper products and books.
“We have people willing to help with that,” she said. “If you have some documents that have torn, they have some archival tape and they will help put those back together for you or show you how to do it yourself.”
The other repair options will be similar to the previous event. There will be volunteer experts to help with care for house plants, to do some basic repairs and give advice on maintaining bicycles, and help to fix small engines and appliances, electronics, computers, toys, jewelry, clothing, and wood furniture.
Another new addition to the upcoming Repair Café will be an area for items that people are not using anymore, which they think somebody else will still be able to use.
“What we’re looking for are things that are valuable, that people used to use and they don’t use them anymore and someone else would be interested in them,” she said.
She used the example of a coffeemaker that she will be bringing to that area, because she has rarely used it. This area is therefore not for broken items and they also do not want items that can already be recycled elsewhere in the city, for example clothing that can be donated to different organizations in the community or end-of-life electronics that can be taken to SARCAN.
Also new at the next Repair Café will be craft activities for children that will be provided by the Art Gallery of Swift Current, which will include the creation of art pieces with recycled material.
Organizers are still looking for volunteer repair experts to assist at the event, and volunteers are also needed to help with other tasks, such as check-in and greeting people, or assist in the garage sale area.
The Swift Current Repair Café takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 21 at the Stockade. The event is free of charge and there will be free coffee and tea. For more information or to contact them, go to their website at www.screpaircafe.com or their Facebook page (@screpaircafe).