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30
Apr
Dutch Repair Café concept to launch in Ripon this summer
People in Ripon with drawerfuls of things to mend will have somewhere to take them this summer, with the launch of the city’s first Repair Café.
Ripon Repair Café will connect a small army of volunteer repairers with people bringing things to fix, such as electrical items, clothing, bikes, toys, crockery, ornaments and jewellery. Repairs will be carried out free of charge.
The main aim of the initiative is to reduce waste and divert as much as possible from landfill.
Organiser Laura Sharpe said:
We throw away piles of stuff in the UK – 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. Ripon Repair Café wants to change all that.
An additional benefit the Repair Café might bring is social, as it will put members of the community in touch with each other in a new way.
Photo: Repair Café International/Martin Waalboer.
Laura said:
If you repair a bike, a CD player or a pair of trousers together with a previously unfamiliar neighbour, 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 new friendships in the neighbourhood.
But above all, Ripon Repair Café just wants to show how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is.
The Ripon café follows the establishment last June of one in Harrogate. That initiative proved hugely popular, and Harrogate Repair Café’s Facebook page now has more than 900 followers.
Photo: Repair Café International/Martin Waalboer.
The first Repair Café was conceived in Amsterdam in 2009, by journalist Martine Postma. In 2010, she started the Repair Café International Foundation, which now supports more than 3,300 Repair Cafés around world, including the one in Ripon.
Others can be found in locations as far-flung as Bolivia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Ghana and Thailand. In the UK alone, there are more than 400.
The first Ripon Repair Café will be held on Saturday, July 12 at St Wilfrid’s Community Centre, on Trinity Lane, from 11am to 2pm.
The organisers aim to hold subsequent events at the same venue on the second Saturday of every other month.
Ripon Repair Café is currently looking to recruit more volunteer repairers. For more information, contact riponrepaircafe@gmail.com.
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