SIRCH Community Services is making free repairs a monthly event.
Starting April 7, the Repair Café will run the first Sunday of every month from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the SIRCH Bistro at 49 Maple Ave. in Haliburton Village.
Dianne Woodcock, Program Coordinator, says people can bring in personal belongings of all types to have them fixed for free by a mix of local business owners, retired professionals, and other skilled volunteers.
“There’s no charge to the person who brings in that item. We do take donations, for obvious reasons. We’d like to keep the initiative going,” says Woodcock. “And the whole concept would be that the fixers will fix it, but hopefully that person who brings in an item will learn how to fix it themselves the next time.”
Woodcock says that includes electronics, appliances, textiles, toys, jewelry, pottery, glassware, woodwork, garden tools, non-fuel-powered vehicles such as bikes, and more. “If it can fit through the door, our fixers will have a look at it. We can’t guarantee anything, but they’re going to do their darndest to try and fix it,” says Woodcock.
Aside from helping the community and transferring skills onto residents, Woodcock says it’s also a great way to keep items in use longer and out of the landfills. She notes that last year’s four workshops fixed close to 200 items, with a roughly 82 per cent success rate.
“If there were more of these, the landfills would be in much better shape—if it can be fixed and not end up in the landfill, it’s a win-win,” she says.
With the initiative going monthly, Woodcock says they hope to make residents aware of the “wealth of talent” that exists in their own backyard.
“So maybe in residents’ minds, they can depend on the fact that every month there’s going to be a repair cafe happening at the SIRCH Bistro,” says Woodcock. “We would just really encourage our community to bring that item in to get fixed and give it a second life.”
She adds the Haliburton Public Library will have a station set up at the café with fun, hands-on educational materials in science, tech, and more.