Saturday’s Repair Cafe was a hot happening in Maple Ridge – in both traffic and degrees Celsius.
Leanne Koehn, who handles community engagement for the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society, said the group was set up at the bandstand in Memorial Peace Park on July 15, and the busy Haney Farmer’s Market provided a lot of walk-up traffic.
“So we were able to introduce lots of new people to the Repair Cafes,” she said.
These are events where people bring all kinds of broken items, from ripped clothing, to wonky bikes, to stopped alarm clocks, to see if they can be saved from the waste stream.
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“Our 27 volunteers were very hardy and worked on all the items brought in to be fixed while we kept them well-watered and brought in Freezies to help beat the heat,” said Koehn. “Two new volunteers signed up, and 63 items were brought in for repairs, including a camping tent, toy ladybug, and canopy umbrellas from the Haney Farmers Market.
She said a lot of kids also visited the Tinkerbell Station and got hands-on with tools, taking apart an old CD player, speakers, remote controls, and an X-box game controller. They are the future repairers.
It was the recycling society’s last Repair Café of the summer, but they will be back at Memorial Peace Park during GETI Fest on Saturday, Sept. 16.
“Bring us your broken stuff!” Koehn urges.
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