Repair Cafe - Sudbury, MA

    Saturday, October 20^th from 9 AM to noon at the Sudbury Senior Center is the next Repair Café.  We need volunteers who like to fix things (everything from sharpening knives to lamp repair to outdoor equipment to furniture repair to appliance repair, etc.).  

Press Release: Sudbury Repair Café - Saturday, October 20th, 2018

The Rotary Club of Nashoba Valley, with the support of the Sudbury Senior Center and Sudbury Historical Society, will hold their third semi-annual Sudbury Repair Café on Saturday, October 20th, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. The event will be held in the Sudbury Senior Center, 40 Fairbank Road, in Sudbury. The Sudbury Senior Center is located in the Fairbank Community Center. Residents of Sudbury and surrounding towns are invited to attend and learn more about the Repair Café concept while having household items repaired.

At the Repair Café everything centers on making repairs. Knowledgeable volunteers will help repair items such as clean mendable clothing, lamps, small appliances including vacuum cleaners and sewing machines, computers and other electronics, bikes, toys, and outdoor power equipment. Volunteers can also sharpen knives, scissors, and garden tools.At the first two Sudbury Repair Cafés nearly all items for which parts were available were successfully repaired by Repair Café volunteers.  Labor is no charge - participants only pay for necessary repair parts. If the parts needed are known, time will be saved by obtaining the parts in advance and bringing the parts to the Repair Café.  It should be noted that television sets and window screens are not repaired due to the specialized tools typically required.

Volunteers at the Repair Café will look at all items brought in and try to repair them. If the volunteers cannot repair something, they will offer suggestions about where repairs can be made. 

Unlike a “fix-it” shop, where people drop off items to be repaired and continue about their day, the Repair Café is meant to get people involved with the repair process and create connections with others in the community. People bringing in items for repair are asked to stay while their items are being fixed. Participants can just watch, help with the repair,fix the item themselves with help from volunteers, or just have a snack and visit with neighbors while their item is being repaired.

Promoting repairs will help reduce mountains of waste. According to Massachusetts Repair Café local organizer Ray Pfau, “We throw away lots of things that often have almost nothing wrong with them, things that could easily be used again after a simple repair. Unfortunately, many people have forgotten that they can fix things. Repair Café is seeking to change that.”

Repair Café is also meant to put neighbors in touch with each other in a new way. Neighbors may discover that a lot of know-how and practical skills can be found close to home. Pfau added, “If you repair a bike, a CD player, or a pair of trousers with previously unfamiliar neighbors, you look at your neighbors in a different light the next time you see them. Jointly making repairs can lead to connections in the community.” Making repairs can also save money and resources.

The Sudbury Repair Café is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Nashoba Valley with support from Sudbury Senior Center and Sudbury Historical Society as well as the Repair Café Foundation. The Repair Café Foundation has been organizing Repair Cafés since 2010 in the Netherlands and there have been Repair Cafés in Massachusetts since the fall of 2013.

Repair Cafés are springing up throughout the local area and have been held in over 26 towns including Bolton, Stow, Sudbury, Westborough, Northboro, Littleton and Wellesley. For a calendar of upcoming repair events in Massachusetts, visit the link www.boltonlocal.org/initiatives/repair-cafe   

For more information about the third Sudbury Repair Café contact Howard Kendall at 978-261-5264 or howard.kendall@comcast.net   To learn more about other local Repair Café programs contact Ray Pfau at 978-779-5545 orray.pfau@alum.mit.edu