Repair Café Whitehead is seeking new 'fixers' ahead of its next pop-up at St Patrick’s Parochial Hall, Edward Road.

The event on Saturday, October 26 (10am-1pm) invites people to bring along their broken items, with volunteer fixers ready to do their best to mend them.

This year marks the first anniversary and fifth pop-up for the group, which was set up with the aims of cutting waste, building community, and sharing skills.

It is part of a growing network of 11 repair cafés across Northern Ireland, with thousands globally.

Visitors, volunteers and 'fixers' at a previous Repair Café in Whitehead. Right: Jane Robb, member of the organising committee with an item repaired at the event. Photos: Steve Diamond

placeholder image — Visitors, volunteers and 'fixers' at a previous Repair Café in Whitehead. Right: Jane Robb, member of the organising committee with an item repaired at the event. Photos: Steve Diamond

The Whitehead branch was supported in the start-up phase by Repair Café Belfast, who also helped the group collate its own ‘fix it’ box, containing a variety of tools for repairs from sewing equipment to batteries and tape.

Repair Café Whitehead’s organising committee is currently hoping to recruit more volunteers ahead of October’s event. Jane Robb, committee member said: “We need fixers for general repairs, but in particular for electronic and electrical items.

“We have sewing repairs, a jewellery fixer and Tools for Solidarity for sharpening and sewing machine fixes.”

Volunteers are also needed to help with other areas of the pop-up, such as set-up and running the café element.

This year marks the first anniversary and fifth pop-up for the group, which was set up with the aims of cutting waste, building community, and sharing skills. Photo: Steve Diamond

Jenny Davies is a member of the organising committee, and provides sewing repairs at Repair Café Whitehead. “I originally trained as a set and costume designer, so I was always making and sewing things,” she said. “Now I’m retired I sew purely for pleasure, and it’s nice being able to help people out and share skills.”

On one occasion, Jenny said, one visitor arrived with an item that he needed a button sewn onto. “He mentioned that he didn’t know how to sew on a button, so I said that I would take two minutes and show him how.

"At other times people come in with treasured possessions; we had one little girl who brought in a toy monkey that had belonged to her father. It must have been about 40 years old; it was lovely to be able to repair it.

"I think from an environmental perspective, it saves things from going into landfill, so it’s a worthwhile thing to do.”

The pop-up will operate on a drop-in, ‘pay as you feel’ basis, with organisers stressing that a fix is not always guaranteed. “Sometimes an item can’t be fixed or is better being disposed of,” Jane added. Signposting visitors to support other local enterprises is also important: “We’re not a service, we’re a community, so we don’t want to take away from small businesses who offer repair services.”

For more information, search ‘Repair Café Whitehead’ on Facebook.