Repair Café at Elmbank Community Centre – Bring it on!


Video by Lon Appleby

On Saturday, June 20, Repair Café visited the Elmbank Community Centre in Rexdale. This was our first visit to the north-western part of the city. In spite of the longer distance, our enthusiastic volunteers travelled from different corners of the city to join us for this event. On the same day, the community centre was also hosting a flea market in their parking lot, so it was a busy day for the neighbourhood.

Once again, our skilled fixers tackled everything, you name it: lawn-mower, lamp, toaster, fan, shredder, flashlight, chair, sewing machine, umbrella, zipper, scarf, pillow case, bag, pants, necklace, book, computer, bicycle, shovel, even more.  For each of these items, our fixer explained to the visitor how the repair was done, so the visitor could do the repair themselves if it broke again. On our Facebook page, you can see photos of the items.

The video above shows the successful repair of a vacuum cleaner. Bill, a visitor from the community who had heard about Repair Café and arrived early with his wife, brought his vacuum cleaner which had been broken for more than a year. In the video, Ed, one of our appliance fixers, explains what caused the vacuum cleaner to stop working and what needed to be done. Ed shows Bill how to fix the vacuum cleaner himself. Enjoy the sound of the vacuum and Bill’s blowing hair!

Many thanks to the fixers and event volunteers for another great event. We would like to thank Elmbank Community Centre for your invitation and the support of your helpful staff. Thanks to local MP Kirsty Duncan and Deputy Mayor Vincent Crisanti for stopping by. And a big thank you to Domino’s for your generous donation of pizzas.

The Repair Café will be back to Skills for Change on July 18. For details, please visit the Upcoming Events page.