Our Time Bank and Transition Culver City have teamed with the City of Culver City to offer the Westside Repair Café services to our neighbors in Culver City and surrounding communities. This event is scheduled as part of Culver City’s Earth Day celebration activities. The City of Santa Monica will be providing support for this event as well.
What do you do with a broken toaster? Or with a bike when the wheel runs out of true? Or with a torn shirt? Throw it away? Certainly not! The Westside Repair Café is organizing the next Repair Café in Culver City at the Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, on Saturday, April 18th, 2015. More details about the event can be found here:
ourtimebank.timebanks.org/events/westside-repair-caf%C3%A9-culver-city-earth-day
At Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium Complex, in the Multipurpose Room, located at 4117 Overland Avenue, on April 18th, the focus will be on making repairs. Starting from 12:00PM and ending at 4:00PM, various specialists will be available: electricians, seamstresses, jewelry repairers, computer technicians, bicycle mechanics, and other capabilities being sought, to help make all possible repairs … free of charge. Tools and general supplies will also be on hand. Guests visiting the Repair Café will bring their broken items from home. Toasters, lamps, hair dryers, clothes, bikes, toys, crockery… anything that is broken is welcome, and can more than likely be repaired. Guests must supply their own parts if needed for repair. The specialists at Westside Repair Café almost always have the know-how.
By promoting repairs, the Westside Repair Café wants to help reduce mountains of waste. This is absolutely necessary and, according to Our Time Bank and Transition Culver City: “We throw away piles of stuff, even things which practically have nothing wrong with them, and which could easily be used again after a simple repair. Unfortunately, many people have either forgotten that they can have things repaired, or the costs at local repair shops are considered too high. Westside Repair Café wants to change all that.”
Repair Café is also meant to put neighbors in touch with each other in a new way, and to discover that a lot of know-how and practical skills can be found close to home. According to Our Time Bank and Transition Culver City: “If you repair a bike, a CD player or a pair of trousers together with a previously unfamiliar neighbor, you look at that person in a different light the next time you run into them on the street. Jointly making repairs can lead to pleasant contacts in the neighborhood.”
The Westside Repair Café team will also provide demonstrations throughout the day (Tai Chi, Guitar stringing, more to be announced) and advice about repurposing. We will have a Give-Away table for used items in working condition, so please feel free to give and take for gratis!
Westside Repair Café points out that repair can save money and resources, and can help minimize CO2 emissions in addition to reducing landfill waste. “But above all, Westside Repair Café just wants to show how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is.”
We ask our guests for a small donation to pay for the supplies used at our events. In lieu of a donation, guests can bring a potluck style dish (main dish, side dish, vegetable, salad, bread, drink, or dessert) to share with participants and receive repair services in return. Sip coffee or munch on some goodies while you wait for repairs!
Repair Café Foundation
The Repair Café concept arose in Amsterdam, where the Repair Café Foundation (see www.repaircafe.nl) has regularly been organizing gatherings since 2010. Since January 2011, the foundation has provided support to local groups in the Netherlands wishing to start their own Repair Café. The foundation also supports the Westside Repair Café here in West Los Angeles.
The Westside Repair Café wishes to conduct a Repair Café on a regular basis, about every 2-3 months. Locations will vary as we bring the event to different communities on the Westside. News about dates and locations of up-and-coming events will follow as soon as possible! Look for us at Culver City’s Fiesta La Ballona 2015 at the end of August.
Note for volunteers: The Westside Repair Café is looking for people who are willing to volunteer their time to help us make this event successful. If you would like to help the Westside Repair Café and be a repairer, greeter, runner, or help at the Admin desk … you can volunteer here: doodle.com/p6cybdrt44zcvszc
We hope you can participate or visit … fun will be had by all while making a positive difference in our economic and environmental surroundings!
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