The first Repair Café in the Midlands is taking place on Saturday November 22 in St.Kieran’s Community Centre, Tormey Villas, Athlone from 2-5pm.
Bring your small broken items such as jug kettle, stool, bike puncture, etc and sit with a repairer who will show you how to mend the item. There will be repair specialists (electricians, DIY/handyman, seamstress, IT, etc ) on hand who are voluntarily giving their time to help others by passing on important skills while extending the life of many items and preventing them going to landfill.
The event is being organised by Westmeath County Council, Athlone Tidy Towns, and Midlands Makerspace group with the support of the Repair Café Netherlands Foundation. All three groups are uniting to host this event.
Shay Hamilton of Athlone Tidy Towns said, “This event promotes sustainable living as it is teaching people how to change their mindset and change a broken item into an item whose life has been extended for longer thus preventing waste - it will help us to re-think what is really waste and what is not.”
The Repair Café originated in Amsterdam in 2009 and this is the first to be held in the Midlands area. The goals of a Repair Café are to bring back repairing into the community in a modern way, to maintain repair expertise, and to spread the knowledge.
The event is free to attend so bring along small items and give them a new life while learning a skill along the way.
If you would like to volunteer your knowledge and time for the Repair Café then contact Ruth Maxwell on (044 ) 9332125 or email [email protected].
For more information on Repair Cafés log on to www.repaircafe.org
