Wondering about the parade of people carrying vacuum cleaners, lamps, CD players, stuffies, jackets with broken zippers, and leaky ottomans heading into the Owen Sound Library some Saturdays? Stick around and you’ll see many of these same people skipping out of the library, thrilled that their broken treasures have been fixed by the team of volunteers at the Repair Café.
Saturday, March 8 marks the one-year anniversary of this joint venture of the Georgian Bluffs Climate Action Team and the Owen Sound North Grey Union Public Library. With a mantra of “Throw it away, NO WAY”, this community initiative has kept close to 500 items out of landfill in its first year of operation.
Free, and completely volunteer run, the Repair Café is held from 1 – 4 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month. Volunteer greeters triage a wide variety of appliances, electronics, clothing, jewellery, furniture, clocks and more, directing them to twenty volunteer fixers at the ready, armed with an impressive collection of tools needed to dissect, diagnose, and almost always, repair. Patrons watch the repair, getting tips about what’s gone wrong and how to manage future issues.
While the Repair Café keeps a supply of threads, batteries, zippers, and some electrical equipment, patrons are sometimes sent off to pick up a missing part from a local hardware or sewing store. Not long after the fixers get to work, the bell starts ringing – marking another fixed item that gets logged on that month’s chart paper, and a photo is taken of fixer, fixed item, and happy owner. The energy is palpable and stories abound – a lamp that belonged to someone’s great-grandmother, a miniature car rescued from the curb and repaired as a special birthday present for a six-year-old, a turntable that’s been sitting in the basement for years, a clock bought at the Mission store.
Repeat customers abound – Phyllis and her daughter Teresa are regulars. Booking a mobility bus to arrive promptly at 1, they stay until 4. While they have been accused of going home to break something just in order to have something new to bring in each month, Teresa insists that once they learned about fixers’ skills, they have found items that needed help. Phyllis describes the Repair Café as “a gift to the community”, and shares her enthusiasm with friends and neighbours, even inspiring her mobility bus driver to bring a broken vacuum cleaner in for repair.
It was early 2023 when organizers of the Thornbury Repair Café made a presentation to a meeting of the Georgian Bluffs Climate Action Team (GBCAT). That presentation inspired GBCAT members to investigate Repair Café International and the Right to Repair movement. After several visits to the Thornbury Repair Café, GBCAT formed a working group and set about looking for a venue. It soon became clear that the library in Owen Sound offered the ideal location and support system.
“The timing was perfect. Libraries across North America have recognized the importance of being involved in this work. We were so fortunate to have such commitment and energy from our local community members. It has been extremely rewarding to see the project be so successful,” said Tim Nicholls Harrison, CEO/Chief Librarian of the Owen Sound North Grey Union Public Library.
Once the venue was established the call went out for volunteers and tools. A call-out on social media generated dozens of donations of tools that were then spread out on a basement ping-pong table for sorting. Hardware stores and other organizations responded generously when presented with a wish list of missing tools and consumable supplies such as glue and WD-40. Fixers sometimes bring tools and supplies needed for their area and patron donations have made it possible to purchase some specialty tools and consumables.
As word spread, skilled fixers came out of the woodwork – more than 30 people gathered in early 2024 for a volunteer orientation session. One year later, there are more than 60 volunteers with a huge range of skills – carpentry, electronics, sewing, darning, leather, jewellery, bike repair, toy repair, clock repair, and more. Fixer Murray Smith describes being at the Repair Café as “the highlight of my month”. Other volunteers serve as greeters, tool and equipment managers, not to mention the baristas who ensure that the café component of the Repair Café is up and running each session with donations from Owen Sound Foodland and Ironwood Coffee.
Donations of tools, irons, threads, glues, WD-50, baked goods, coffee, tea, and more have come from local businesses, including Wiarton Home Hardware, Fulfords, Smith & Hladil Home Hardware, Princess Auto, Home Depot, Mission Thrift Store, ReStore, Boon Bakery, the European Bakery Café, and the Township of Georgian Bluffs.
As it enters year two, the Repair Café continues to encourage people to bring their tired, much-loved treasures in for a free fix. If you can carry it in and it isn’t gas-powered or a microwave oven, a volunteer will do their best to fix it.
