St. John’s Repair Café encouraging sustainability and reigniting repair skills

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

Instead of tossing out a torn or otherwise damaged item, consider taking it to the St. John’s Repair Café in Eastwood.

The repair café operating out of St. John’s Anglican Church is made up of a small group of volunteers performing minor repairs on clothing, linens, household items and more that would otherwise be donated or discarded to a landfill.

"We want to try to make things more sustainable, not just getting something and throwing it away because it's a small tear, rip or a little stain on it that could be covered over,” said member Beth Wild.

The St. John’s Repair Café is part of the global Repair Café International movement that began in the Netherlands in 2009 and now involves 3,000 repair cafés in dozens of countries. Wild would love to see the movement expand to other parts of Oxford County, like Norwich, Ingersoll, and Innerkip.

"It would be absolutely amazing if every community had their own repair café there in a church hall like we are, or a village hall, in the local library or whatever,” she said.

The café was created after Wild discussed it with a friend and colleagues at the church. Wild said growing up in England, she learned how to make minor repairs to her items to keep them going for longer. However, having the skill set to make repairs is less common in a throwaway society. The Repair Café movement encourages sustainability and helps people save money.

"There are a lot of seniors, families, who can't afford to replace something that may have gotten broken and torn and whatever and we want to make it affordable for people just to come,” said Wild.

As of March 7, the St. John’s Repair Café will have been operating for two years and provided repairs to more than 170 items on a pay-what-you-can basis.

The operation has about 10 to 12 volunteers and the group is looking for more people with sewing skills to come aboard. It operates the first Saturday of every month from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and everyone is encouraged to visit the church at 685860 County Road 2, R.R.#5.

"Just come out, talk to us, come see what we do,” Wild said.

More information about the Repair Café International movement can be found online by visiting https://www.repaircafe.org, where you’ll learn about the global network of volunteer-run events that bring people together to fix broken items, share skills, and promote sustainability.