NEWBURYPORT — Folks hoping to get their bicycles fixed, their garden tools sharpened or even their house lamps mended should visit the Newburyport Senior/Community Center on Saturday, April 5, for the Time Trade Network of Greater Newburyport’s annual spring Repair Café.
Taking place between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the free event features over 30 local volunteers adept at tinkering with small appliances, textiles, jewelry, bikes, small wooden items and even mechanical clocks.
Knife sharpening, as well as garden hand tool sharpening along with some expert advice on chair caning will also be offered.
“We want to encourage people to have their items repaired instead of putting them into the waste stream,” event organizer Elizabeth Marcus said. “They can also get to see just how easy and fun it can sometimes be.”
The Time Trade Network of Greater Newburyport is a group of local volunteers willing and eager to share their knowledge as well as talents with one another.
At the Repair Café, people can bring up to three small, clean items then watch while each is repaired on the spot.
Marcus added each event has a different cast of “repairers” who examine and fix a variety of items. Repair cafés are tailored toward minor repairs, generally taking less than 20 minutes. But the ultimate goal, she added, is to develop an expanding group of repairers.
All repairs are done free of charge but donations are appreciated.
Repair cafés, according to Marcus are truly a good time.
“People come to us with one-of-a-kind items that often can’t be replaced. Family heirlooms, that kind of thing,” Marcus said. “Sometimes we’re able to repair or restore them. That’s something that people really seem to appreciate.”
Entrusted with plenty of family history, Marcus added her volunteers take their jobs very seriously.
“We do the quick fixes that can be done in about 20 minutes,” she said. “They will take a look at the item and sometimes be able to fix it in that period of time.”
For jobs that might take over a half an hour, Marcus said arrangements can also be made to have the work referred to other resources in the community.
The bi-annual events (there’s one in the spring, another in the fall) are run in conjunction with the city’s Toward Zero Waste Newburyport initiative, which helps to get the word out about the Recycling, Energy & Sustainability Department’s efforts to reduce trash.
Laurel Hanke, recycling assistant at the Recycling, Energy & Sustainability Department, said she recently had a woman drop off a lamp at the recycling center, who could have used a Repair Café in the past.
“She told me she was so heartbroken about it that she couldn’t even watch us take it away. She had two people try to fix it but it didn’t work out,” she said.
People these days, according to Hanke, have gotten into the habit of replacing things instead of repairing them.
“The Repair Café is an effort to buck that trend a bit,” she said. “It also keeps things from ending up in a landfill.”
Hanke added she currently has a sheet with a rip in it that she hopes to get mended at the upcoming Repair Café.
“I don’t have a sewing machine, so to have somebody put a stitch on it would be great,” she said. “I also have a chair that needs work.”
Hanke also agreed with Marcus that the Repair Cafés are a really good time.
“I was so struck by the joy that was there,” she said. “People who like to fix things really like to do it. And the people who are getting something fixed are overjoyed. So, it’s just a happy place.”
To learn more about the Repair Café, go to: www.RepairCafeNBPT.org.
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.