05/28/17 — 'Repair Cafe' to be held at Northview Baptist June 3

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'Repair Cafe' to be held at Northview Baptist June 3

By From staff reports
Published in News on May 28, 2017 12:25 AM

Borthview Baptist Church at 600 Patetown Road will hold a "Repair Café" on Saturday, June 3.

Starting from 8 a.m. and ending at 2 p.m., volunteer repair experts will be available to help make all possible repairs free of charge. Tools and materials will also be on hand. 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, Northview Baptist Church wants to help reduce mountains of waste. This is absolutely possible. "We throw away piles of stuff in 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."

The event 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. If you can repair a bike, a CD player, or a pair of trousers together with a previously unfamiliar neighbor you look at that person in a different light the next time you run into them on the street. Jointly making repairs can lead to pleasant contacts in the neighborhood.

Northview Baptist believes repairs can save money and resources. But above all, Repair Café just wants to show how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is.

The Repair Café concept arose in the Netherlands in 2009 and was formulated by Martine Postma, an Amsterdam-based journalist.