Had a Repair Cafe today!
The local library hosts one every quarter. This was the second one and we had 50 people show up! We're hoping to start offering it more frequently, they're just ramping up.
I was there for bike repair. I used to have a solid kit built out, but lost a lot of my tools in previous moves, so I'm building it out again.
I had two bikes that came in today. I tuned rear derailleurs and break lines. Swapped out some break pads. Pumped up tires and did some basic cleaning.
I made a note to bring some CLP and rags for the next go around as cleaning off gunk solves a lot of problems.
I was backup for laptop repairs and Linux installs (the local Linux Install Party showed up!) but focused mainly on bikes.
Others did electronics fixing and clothes mending, etc.
I met some folks. One person from a local church group that is interested in maybe hosting a free fridge or otherwise volunteering with my food group and a person from the town's green initiative that is interested in personally working with my food group.
There is a lot of overlap with various mutual aid groups. You get started with one and you end up learning about all the others!
It was a good day.
Xauri'EL Zwaan
in reply to Tinker ☀️ • • •Tinker ☀️
in reply to Xauri'EL Zwaan • • •- So a couple of things.
1) Repair cafes are perfect places to LEARN how to repair things. Go up to a stand that has folks who know how to do a thing. Watch them do it and ask questions. A big part of yesterday was not just me doing bike fixes but teaching people how to do bike fixes (both the people that brought in bikes and others just hanging out).
2) There is a lot to do to help out with a Repair Cafe that does NOT involve repairing. We had folks that came in and just helped set up, tear down, and then stand at the welcome booth and help people get to where they needed. There's also social media and marketing and getting the word out.
So. Yeah! You're in a perfect place to dive in and help set one up!