NEXT EVENT IS .....
October 5, 2024 - SAME TIME AND PLACE!
9:00am-12:00pm at The Point at Otterbein Unversity
What is a Repair Cafe?
Repair Cafés are free meeting places and they’re all about repairing things (together). In the place where a Repair Café is located, you’ll find tools and materials to help you make any repairs you need. On clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery, appliances, toys, et cetera. You’ll also find expert volunteers, with repair skills in all kinds of fields.
Visitors bring their broken items from home. Together with the specialists they start making their repairs in the Repair Café. It’s an ongoing learning process. If you have nothing to repair, you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. Or you can lend a hand with someone else’s repair job. You can also get inspired at the reading table – by leafing through books on repairs and DIY.
https://www.repaircafe.org/en/about/
Details:
Bring in repairable or potentially repairable items.
Please come in prior to 11:30am to ensure time for evaluation/repairs.
Our "experts" will work with you to determine if it is repairable. If it is, the "expert" and you can work together to fix it. We are highly encouraging this to be a "hands on" experience. We realize this might not always be possible.
If you know or suspect the item needs a specific replacement part such as a new cord, switch, a patch, a button, etc., please bring it with you. We will not have access to purchase items, though Roush Hardware is right up the road! 609 South State Street
Please know that this is a "walk in" process, so there may be multiple people being assisted by the "expert" at the same time. This is not a drop-off and pick-up later event. Please have a seat at the table where the "expert" and other "customers" are working. Get to know some of your Westerville neighbors!
Java Central is providing free coffee and home brewing tips. Sustainable Westerville will be passing out free tree seedlings (see the list below of possible seedlings that will be available). The Westerville Public Library will be on hand to share information about their Tool Library .
Donuts were donated by Schneider's Bakery!
Click below to play pics from October event and an international event video!
Repair Cafe.mp4Press Release...
Westerville continues its own Repair Café
What do you do with a broken toaster? Or with a bike when the wheel runs out of true? Or with a sweater full of moth holes? Toss it? No way! Sustainable Westerville, Otterbein University, and the Westerville Public Library are organizing the SECOND Repair Café at The Point in Westerville, Ohio on Saturday April 20, 2024.
The Point on Otterbein’s campus, located at 60 Collegeview Road, on April 20, everything centers on making repairs. Starting at 9:00am and ending at 12:00pm, various volunteer repair experts will be available to help make all possible repairs free of charge. Tools and materials will also be on hand to use and to purchase if needed. People visiting the Repair Café will bring along their broken items from home. Toasters, lamps, hair dryers, clothes, bikes, toys, crockery... anything that is broken is welcome. And can more than likely be repaired. The Repair Café specialists almost always have the know-how.
By promoting repairs, Sustainable Westerville and Otterbein University, want to help reduce mountains of waste. This is absolutely necessary, according to Bethany Vosburg-Bluem and Paul Wendel, "We throw away so many fixable items in the United States. Even things which practically have nothing wrong with them, and which could easily be used again after a simple repair. Unfortunately, many people have forgotten that they can have things repaired. Repair Café wants to change all that."
Repair Café is also meant to put neighbors in touch with each other in a new way. And to discover that a lot of know-how and practical skills can be found close to home. Bethany: "If you repair a bike, a lamp or a shirt together with a fellow community member, it helps create a stronger sense of community and connection.. It also empowers people to be more mindful of what they keep and what they throw away."
Paul points out that a repair minimizes waste, typically doubling or tripling the life of an object. "We want to encourage a conservation & repair mindset from start to finish. Buy durable items, then keep them going for as long as we can."
Repair Café International Foundation
The Repair Café concept arose in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2009, and was formulated by Martine Postma, at the time a journalist/publicist. In 2010, she started the Repair Café International Foundation (see Repaircafe.org/en). This foundation provides professional support to local groups around the world wishing to start their own Repair Café. The foundation also supports the Repair Café in Westerville, Ohio.
Sustainable Westerville and Otterbein University have begun organizing this Repair Café and would like it to become an annual or bi-annual event. News about future dates and locations will be dependent upon the success of this first one, so please consider coming in with an item or two!
March 2024
Note for the editors: You can get more information from Bethany Vosburg-Bluem from Sustainable Westerville and Otterbein University, bvosburgbluem@otterbein.edu or Paul Wendel from Otterbein University, pwendel@otterbein.edu . You can also go to https://www.sustainablewesterville.org/repair-cafe or Repaircafe.org/en.
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