Earth Day, first celebrated in the early 1970s is annually recognized on April 22 with environmental events, litter clean-ups, tree plantings, and an emphasis on the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).
The Burlington Repair Cafe, along with the over 3,000 other Repair Cafes around the world (www.repaircafe.org) want to add a fourth “R” — Repair — to the list.
On Saturday, April 20 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the Burlington Repair Cafe will host its monthly repair event at St. John’s Anglican Church, 2464 Dundas Street West (of Guelph Line) in the community hall.
At a Repair Cafe, residents are invited to bring in their broken/damaged small household items and our volunteer ‘fixers’ help repair them, on the spot, most times for free.
On Monday, April 22 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., a team from the Burlington Repair Cafe and the Burlington Men’s Shed (a group of retired men involved in community events) will host a “Take-It-Apart Party” with Burlington MP Karina Gould’s Youth Council. This event will be held at Burlington Centre mall in the Community Hub (courtesy of RioCan).
The reason behind the “Take-It-Apart Party” event is to introduce the concept of repairing household appliances, electronics, etc. to a younger audience. The first step in repairs is, simply, knowing how to take things apart, open them up, do a diagnostic analysis of potential problems, learning how to safely fix and test a variety of everyday items, and what tools are needed to do repairs.
The format is that a few of our volunteers set up maybe four or five tables, each with a different item. A toaster, a coffee maker, a lamp, printer, etc., on each table and youth sit at the table of their choice and watch, learn and take apart the item. Some items are easy to take apart, others have special screws or hidden tabs that manufacturers use to discourage repairs.
What tools to use? How to read a multi-meter? Keeping track of all the parts (so that you can put them back together). Even the knowledge that repairs can, and used to, be made all the time are all part of the process.
The Burlington Repair Cafe hopes this will become a regular feature involving various younger people from organizations, the city, church groups.
For more information, contact Lawson Hunter at burlingtonrepaircafe@cogeco.ca or 905-802-8633.
A previous Burlington Repair Cafe event. Photo courtesy of Burlington Repair Cafe.
