The Repair Café Comes to the Hub to celebrate!
On Saturday 1st October, twe opened our doors to Love Haslemere Hate Waste’s Repair Café. The team was visiting to celebrate its first anniversary and offer Fernhurst residents their skills at fixing broken and damaged personal possessions.
For the past 12 months, the ‘Ministry of Menders’, who are all volunteers, have met at Haslemere Town Hall, on the first Saturday of the month, providing a drop-in service from 10am-1pm for anyone with an item that requires mending. To date, the team has repaired more than 350 objects – almost 30 a month - saving more than 1,760kg from landfill, on average.
We provided tea and coffee to volunteer repairers and watched as some items were mended on the spot and others ‘booked in’ for further work. Hub Manager Liz Rawlings, amazed at the variety of goods brought in, ranging from a 70 year old teddy to a mini steam engine and a Tiffany lamp, said, “It is wonderful to see objects that would have been thrown away being restored to useful life. So many owners have stressed the sentimental value of their items, it has been a pleasure to provide the space for the repairers, we thank them all for their time and commitment.”
The Repair Café is lucky to have around 15 committed repairers who have turned their hand to fixing a huge variety of items, including electronic lamps, toasters and radios. They have mended wooden furniture or ornaments and replaced buttons and zips. Garden tools and furniture and toys as well as children’s and adult bikes are often brought along for attention.
Victoria Page, founder of Love Haslemere Hate Waste said, “I’m so hugely proud of the Repair Café and the dedicated team of repairers that are out in force every month fixing what’s broken. For every repair made, the Repair Café welcomes donations via its Justgiving page with donations are going towards a ‘Library of Useful Things’. This will be launched in the late Autumn at Haslemere Library, providing the community the chance to borrow items they do not need to buy, such as sewing machines, garden tools and shredders.
The Mend and Repair event was such a success that plans are being made for further sessions. Hub Trustee Antonia Plant said “There has been a real buzz today and these skilled repairers generate a great community spirit. As a volunteer organisation itself, the Hub is ideally placed to host the Repair Café, we have loved meeting the team and hearing how they learned their special skills. We have had more items to repair than we thought possible in one morning and hope to repeat the event.”