The repair cafe is one of many such pop-ups across Wales
HOOVERS, vinyl record players, and bikes are just some of the items given a new lease of life by volunteers at a repair café in Cathays.
This monthly event is one of many organised across Wales that aim to fix broken objects for free.
Held in the Sherman Theatre each month, the repair café is part of efforts made by the theatre to open its doors to the community.
“I’d seen it before but never came in because I didn’t have anything to fix,” said one attendee who’d brought in a toaster and a pair of sunglasses during the November event.
Stumbling upon another repair café held in Penarth was also how Celia Favorite got started volunteering with the textiles team in Cathays.
Ms Favorite emphasised the important role that their work can play in helping to fix well-worn loved items.
Another volunteer on the textiles table, Caryn, even likened the work to an “animal hospital,” due to the number of cuddly toys they fix.
In one memorable repair, the textiles team managed to fix the burnt foot of a toy elephant by stitching some spare dinosaur fabric over the damage.
The repair café has also given broken toy helicopters the chance to fly again thanks to volunteers like Dennis, a retired professor of engineering, on the electrics table.
“Everything is fixable if you have the parts” adds Dennis.
However, some of the items they come across aren’t built to last, as some manufactures create products that aren’t deliberately designed to be easily fixable, he added.
The monthly event in Cathays is part of Repair Café Wales, an organisation founded in 2017 to support such schemes across Wales.
Their funding comes partly from the Welsh Government, which aims to support repair and reuse projects such as this.
Though many of the fixes done by repair cafés are simple, being shown how to do it by a volunteer can help give others the confidence to try themselves in the future.
Dan, a volunteer who spent the day fixing bikes, said that simply trying to fix something is often enough, and people are very grateful that they tried.
“Most people want to help other people,” added local councillor Sarah Merry, a supporter of the repair cafés.
A spokesperson from the Sherman Theatre said: “We’re proud to have hosted Repair Café Wales Cathays since 2019. This is one of the many ways in which we serve our communities alongside our work as a Theatre of Sanctuary, our Sherman 5 programme and as a venue for the weekly Chatty Café to tackle social isolation.”
- Cathays Repair Café is held on the first Saturday of every month. The next event is on December 7.
