Friday 16 March 2018

Repair Cafe

Message from Sue and Steve Boulding which I should have sent out earlier this afternoon.

Short notice I'm afraid, but the Repair Cafe is on tomorrow (Sat 17th) at Participate, opposite Wilkinsons in Shrewsbury, from 11 till 3.

About Repair Café

What is a Repair Café?

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.

There are over 1.400 Repair Cafés worldwide. Visit one in your area or start one yourself! See also the house rules we use at the Repair Café.

Why a Repair Café?

We throw away vast amounts of stuff. Even things with almost nothing wrong, and which could get a new lease on life after a simple repair. The trouble is, lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how. Knowing how to make repairs is a skill quickly lost. Society doesn't always show much appreciation for the people who still have this practical knowledge, and against their will they are often left standing on the sidelines. Their experience is never used, or hardly ever.

The Repair Café changes all that! People who might otherwise be sidelined are getting involved again. Valuable practical knowledge is getting passed on. Things are being used for longer and don't have to be thrown away. This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products. It cuts CO2 emissions, for example, because manufacturing new products and recycling old ones causes CO2 to be released.

The Repair Café teaches people to see their possessions in a new light. And, once again, to appreciate their value. The Repair Café helps change people's mindset. This is essential to kindle people's enthusiasm for a sustainable society.

But most of all, the Repair Café just wants to show how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is. Why don't you give it a go?

--   Yoland Brown  Brownhill House B&B & Garden, Ruyton XI Towns nr. Shrewsbury SY4 1LR  Tel:  01939 261 121  brownhill@eleventowns.co.uk  www.eleventowns.co.uk www.eleventowns.org uk  www.eleventowns.com  ShACC - Shropshire Alternative Car Club - www.ShACC-uk.org  MAILING LIST  for Ruyton XI Towns area  Yo`s blog:  http://Yo-emails.blogspot.co.uk