The Rotary Club of Nashoba Valley, with help from Bolton Local, will hold the next Bolton Repair Café on Saturday, Jan 20, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.The event will be held in the cafeteria at the Florence Sawyer School, 100 Mechanic Street in Bolton. Residents of Bolton and surrounding towns are invited to come and find out what a Repair Café is all about.
At the Repair Café, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Nashoba Valley, everything centers on making repairs. Knowledgeable volunteers will help repair items such as clean mendable clothing, lamps, small appliances, computers and other electronics, bikes, and toys. They can also sharpen knives, scissors, and garden tools.
Volunteers at the Repair Café will look at all items brought in and try to repair them. If the volunteers cannot repair something, they will offer suggestions about where you could go for repairs.
Unlike a “fix-it” shop, where people drop off items to be repaired and continue about their day, the Repair Café is meant to get people involved with the repair process and create connections with others in the community. People bringing in items for repair are asked to stay while the items are being fixed. You can just watch, help with the repair, fix the item yourself with help from volunteers, or just have a snack and visit with neighbors.
We will continue our activity for kids at this event. Bring your children or your grandchildren so they can work on taking something apart at the supervised take-apart table to see how it works. Putting things back together and fixing things is not expected.
Promoting repairs will help reduce mountains of waste. According to organizer Ray Pfau, “We throw away lots of things that often have almost nothing wrong with them, things that could easily be used again after a simple repair. Unfortunately, many people have forgotten that they can fix things. Repair Café wants to change all that.”
Repair Café is also meant to put neighbors in touch with each other in a new way. Neighbors may discover that a lot of know-how and practical skills can be found close to home. Pfau added, “If you repair a bike, a CD player, or a pair of trousers with previously unfamiliar neighbors, you look at them in a different light the next time you see them. Jointly making repairs can lead to connections in the community.” Making repairs can also save money and resources.
The Bolton Repair Café is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Nashoba Valley with support from Bolton Local and the Repair Café Foundation. The Repair Café Foundation has been organizing Repair Cafés in the Netherlands since 2010 and has provided support since January 2011 to local groups in and outside the Netherlands wanting to start their own Repair Cafés. Bolton has been holding Repair Cafés since the fall of 2013.
Repair Cafés are springing up in the local area. The Northboro Junior Women’s Club will hold a Repair Café on Saturday, Mar 3. The Littleton Rotary Club will hold a Repair Café on Sat, Mar 10. Closer to Boston, a Fixit Clinic will be held at the Jamaica Plain branch of the Boston Public Library on Sat, Jan 27.
For a calendar of upcoming repair events in Massachusetts, go to this link:
For more information, contact Ray Pfau at 978-779-5545 or ray.pfau@alum.mit.edu, or visit www.nashobarotary.org.