The Cambridge Repair Café is a joint project of the Cambridge Recycling Advisory Committee, Public Works Department, Green Cambridge, Cambridge Public Schools Office of Sustainability, Community Development Department, and the list keeps growing! For more info, visit www.facebook.com/CambridgeRepairCafe.  

We are looking for repair specialists including electricians, seamstresses, carpenters, Do-It-Yourselfers, bicycle mechanics, and people who can fix musical instruments and jewelry to volunteer their time and share their skills for 4 hours on Saturday September 27 from 10am-2pm at the Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender St. We're also looking for volunteers to help promote this event and help out that day for set-up and clean-up.

What do you do with a toaster that no longer works? Or a sweater with moth holes? Or a chair when the leg has come loose? Toss it? No way! You can repair it at the Repair Café, a free meeting place all about repairing things, together. Visitors bring broken items from home and will find tools and materials to help make needed repairs on clothes, electrical appliances, bicycles, toys, furniture etc. Together with the specialists they start making their repairs and learn during the process. If you have nothing to repair, you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, help with someone else’s repair job, or get inspired at the reading table – by leafing through books on repairs and DIY.

Why a Repair Café? We throw away tons of stuff. Even things that only need a small simple fix. The trouble is, we forget that we can repair things or no longer know how. Knowing how to make repairs is a skill quickly lost. Society doesn’t always appreciate those of us who still have this practical knowledge, but at the Repair Café people get to pass on valuable practical knowledge! Things are used longer and don’t have to be thrown away. This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products, and cuts CO2 by reducing emissions from less manufacturing. The Repair Café teaches us to see our possessions in a new light and to appreciate their value. It helps change people’s mindset which is key to kindle our enthusiasm for a sustainable society. Most of all, the Repair Café will show how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is.