People can soon bring broken but beloved items back to life at a Repair Café at Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library.
The Georgian Bluffs Climate Action Team is partnering with the library to host regular Repair Cafés.
Volunteers will share their repair skills to help residents fix broken items. Spokesperson Danuta Valleau says the goal is to reduce waste, and revive belongings.
"Small appliances, clothing that needs alteration or repairs, small bits of furniture, the sorts of things that everybody has sitting around," Valleau said. "There's something wrong with it. It's not working but you can't quite bring yourself to throw it out."
Repairs could also include household items, electronics or bike repairs, but nothing an individual cannot carry into the café alone. Valleau adds it is not a repair shop, and individuals are asked to join in the repair.
"They stay there, to watch or assist or learn about the item's repair," she explained. "There's no binding thing apart from that but they stay there and they participate in some way with the repair and then leave and go home with the repaired items."
Valleau expects the effort to promote sustainability and empower the community.
"We're really hoping that it's another thing that is going to help build community which we need," she continued. "There's so much isolation, and also despair, so we're bringing hope by allowing people to contribute what they can and giving them a place to do that."
Valleau says individuals with skills to repair items are welcome to volunteer as well.
"And this is about skill sharing, and also having a conversation about it," she added. "And also learning how to repair things so that people can take some of those skills away."
So far, about 50 people have expressed a desire to help at the free café starting March 9. The cafés are expected to continue every second Saturday of the month from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
