Ripped backpack? Busted toaster? Wobbly coffee table? Don’t just replace it, repair it!
On November 7, from 6-9 pm, Pakit Liquidators and The Environmental Center’s Rethink Waste Project is hosting Central Oregon’s first Repair Café – a free event that brings together people who like to fix things, with people who have stuff that needs fixing.
Volunteers will be on hand to repair – and share a skill or two – small appliances, clothing, bikes, knit goods, small furniture, some jewelry, backpacks, and other items needing heavy duty sewing.
“A Repair Café is a fun event that brings people together and engages them with their stuff,” says Denise Rowcroft, Rethink Waste Project coordinator. “A lot of the goods we buy are so cheap it doesn’t seem worth it to repair, but that just keeps us stuck in a consumptive cycle of buying more stuff – which costs us personally and globally.
“Pakit is a great place to hold this event, because they have always been about creative reuse and building community, and a repair café is a unique way to do both.”
Attendees are asked to bring broken items and any replacement parts they think might be needed (or cash to buy some on the spot). There is no guarantee all broken items can be repaired that evening – more research may be needed, a part may need to be ordered – but the volunteers will do their best with what they have.
There will also be an Unfinished Projects area where people are invited to bring a Do-It-Yourself project they want to work on. Resourceful upcyclers and DIYers will be on hand to lend ideas, tools, skills or just company. This event is free, but food will be available for purchase from the El Sancho food cart.
Rethink Waste is a program of The Environmental Center in partnership with Deschutes County Department of Solid Waste, Bend Garbage & Recycling, Deschutes Recycling, High County Disposal and Cascade Disposal.
