Volunteer Fred Davis sharpens a gardening tool at a Repair Cafe last August.
Repair Cafes hit Clark County for the first time in 2017 and they’re set to return this year.
Funding is provided by the Washington State Department of Ecology's Public Participation Grant.
Last year, 40 skilled volunteers came together to use their expertise and knowledge to diagnose and fix a variety of items that generally fit into a few categories, such as small electronics and appliances, sewing, tool sharpening, bicycles as well as a catch-all category for items such as jewelry and broken ceramics.
The events were a hit. Volunteers served more than 400 community members and fixed over 220 items.
The cafe came together by a collaboration of eight different entities including city and county government departments, local nonprofits and businesses who wanted to bring the worldwide Repair Cafe movement to Clark County.
“You can call your neighbor and get free labor; it’s the expertise,” Mike Filbin, owner of Filbin’s Ace Hardware and part of the repair cafe sponsor committee, told The Reflector last year. “These people all have some chosen expertise.”
Filbin also said the events are a learning experience.
“It’s not just that you come in, dump your junk off and someone fixes it for you, it’s that you come in and sit across the table from someone who is volunteering their time and their talents to help you fix your stuff,” he said.
