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Did you know that over the course of their lifetime, the average American throws away 600 times their body weight in garbage? Repair Cafe strives to lower this statistic while empowering people to learn new repair skills.

olympia furnitureRepair Cafes exist around the world. They are free community events where visitors can bring broken items and – with the help of knowledgeable volunteers – learn how to repair them, giving new life to their possessions and keeping them out of landfills. Repair Cafes provide the supplies needed to fix broken items such as toys, electronics, furniture, clothes, appliances, and more.

The Repair Cafe movement was founded Martine Postma, a strong advocate for starting sustainability efforts at a local level. She aided in the opening of several Repair Cafes in the Netherlands in 2009, and the movement grew into a non-profit organization called The Repair Cafe Foundation that provided support for existing Repair Cafe events and communities striving to start them.

In our current culture, it’s often easier to throw something away and buy a new one than fix it. This method puts more strain on both our wallets and the environment, and Repair Cafe intends to give community members the knowledge and skills to make their own repairs.

Fixing an RV
Volunteers mend an RV that was brought in to a previous Repair Cafe Olympia event. Photo courtesy: Repair Cafe Olympia

At the events, volunteers show visitors how to make the repairs instead of doing it for them, so that they can make similar restorations on their own. Repair Cafe makes sure to distinguish that they aren’t working in competition with professional repair companies. This skill-share community most often sees people who would otherwise throw their items away because the repairs would be too expensive to have done in another setting. The mission that Repair Cafes represent is to show community members that there are other, more sustainable options to throwing something away and replacing it, and visitors are often referred to professional repair services when applicable.

Repair Cafe Olympia, based out of The Ranga House, was started a little over a year ago. The Ranga House, operated by Nickhole Arcade and her partner Brian Gallucci, is a community art space that hosts classes, art parties, galleries, workshops, and more. Nickhole and Brian initially strived to start a repair collective on their own, but were not met with much success until they discovered Repair Cafe network and officially joined the movement, listing their Repair Cafe online and receiving support such as signage and information from The Repair Cafe Foundation. They provide coffee and pastries from Olympia Roasting Company for the events, as a way to break bread with their community and stay focused and well-fed.

Now, they see more and more people attending with each event. Nickhole expresses to me how she sees the local Repair Cafe flourishing, with the help of many skilled repair experts and the enthusiasm from the community. She and Brian share a desire to inspire people to see how easy it is to fix things instead of to buy a new one. “People aren’t just dropping things off,” Nickhole says. “They’re learning how to do it themselves. They take what they learn with them.”

Repair Cafe stone sculpture
Repair Cafe Olympia participants mended a broken concrete sculpture. Photo courtesy: Repair Cafe Olympia

At their last Repair Cafe event, many items were given a new life, such as a toy Spider-Man mask, a pressure cooker, a fluorescent light, and lots of clothing. Nickhole recalls some of the more memorable repairs of past events, such as a woman who brought in an RV with blown fuses that was repaired.

Repair Cafes wouldn’t be possible without the help of their volunteers, who are experts in repairing a wide variety of items. A wide range of skills between volunteers is something distinctive of Olympia Repair Cafe, and part of what makes it such a vibrant, effective collective. Some of the many skilled volunteers at Repair Cafe Olympia include Jeff, a certified forensic computer analyst, who helps with cell phones and other electronics; Kia, who works with textiles; and Mike, Brian’s father. Mike is a jack of all trades with a specialty in blacksmithing. Nickhole shares a story about how when a young woman brought in a broken shopping cart to a repair cafe event that couldn’t be mended onsite, Mike took the shopping cart to his studio to fix it.

If you have a repair skill that you would like to share with the community, items in need of repair, or simply an interest in being a part of a local community that encourages sustainability efforts and learning new skills, consider attending Olympia Repair Cafe’s next event on Sunday, October 14, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. The event is held at The Ranga House, 4800 Capitol Blvd SE, Suite D in Tumwater.

For more information, or to contact the organizers about volunteering, check out The Ranga House’s Facebook page, or reach them at therangahouse@gmail.com.

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