This update will be a quick one this month, as there weren’t many people who came in to the Repair Cafe last month. That brings me to the call to action: tell the football team, your drinking buddies, and your friends on social media, that the Repair Cafe exists and we’re pretty cool.
We haven’t had as many volunteer mentors show up, nor people bringing stuff they want to repair. While it’s handy to have a balance between mentors and repairers, the low turnout raises the question about whether this is really a valuable community service.
There are two obvious possibilities here:
- Having a local Repair Cafe is valuable and people just don’t know about us
- It used to be valuable, but we’re fixing things faster than this town breaks them
I think the first one is more likely, but is that just wishful thinking? Is it because I’m biased by seeing the people come in and hearing their heartfelt thanks for helping them out and ignoring the fact that it’s only a handful of folks?
As I wrote before, it’s up to the community as to whether this project continues on. Either people will pitch in and help spread the word, or they won’t. All I can do is ask. It really is in your hands. Together, we’ll see what happens.
4 Responses
Yes, it is a great idea and the mentors are excellent.
Hi! Just wanted to comment here that I’m very interested and have been wanting to come to Repair Cafe for months, but I’ve never been able to because my current job requires that I work every Thursday night. I’m sure it’s a tricky proposition to consider adding additional open hours for the Repair Cafe when foot traffic is already low, but at least for me, having at least one other meeting per month that falls on a different weekday evening would be super helpful. Appreciate the work that y’all have been doing and hope to make it in sometime soon!
I understand. And I know there are also other social groups that meet on the same day & time as the normal Repair Cafe nights.
We do also attend communuty events when they align with our values. Two examples would be the IMC Community Nights, and the annual celebration for America Recycles day.
The last community night will be this coming Tuesday (10/20) from 5:30-7:30PM at the IMC.
America Recycles day is on 11/14 from 10-noon at the Anita Purves Nature Center.
We haven’t been able to get many volunteers for these extra events; sometimes it’s just a single person who has shown up. And we don’t have all the tools and materials in the Makerspace readily available when we’re off site. But we always do the best with what we’ve got, and we are trying to at least occassionally be accessible on other days of the week and at different times.
Thanks so much Adam! We have been wanting to come but travel for work has interfered with this to date. My work schedule is getting better so hoping to make it to Thursday events and others. Even though we haven’t been able to come we appreciate this in our community. Thank you for your time and commitment. We will look to posting and sharing info for others