Amberley Repair Café almost doubles number of items for repair
Hurunui District Council media release: 18th November 2024
November’s Amberley Repair Café saw “almost double” the number of items brought for repair – a great community connection, the event’s organisers say.
A total of 90 items were registered for repair at the November Amberley Repair Café, an increase from the 50 brought to the June event.
From clothing, to bicycles, to table lamps, people brought items from as far as Hanmer Springs, Oxford and Culverden. Others came just to support the event’s ethos of reducing waste, Hurunui District Council Waste educator Serina Linton says.
74 percent of items were repaired on the day, with repairs to others continuing after the event.
“We are enormously grateful to our volunteers, most of whom work in their fields and volunteered their time to our community for free,” Linton says.
New skills were added to this month’s event, with watch and jewellery repair being very popular.
Sylvia Bowles from ‘Mollie’s Place at 79’ says many in the community were grateful for the opportunity to have “precious” jewellery items, which might only have sentimental value, being repaired at no cost, giving them new life.
Bowles says the event also provided education on safety and maintenance, with the bicycle and chainsaw repair stations especially passing on helpful tips.
In today’s throw-away culture, it was a win for both community and the planet.
The event was a collaboration between ‘Mollie’s Place at 97’ and Hurunui District Council under the Repair Café Aotearoa New Zealand network.