Hanging on to broken appliances and favourite odds and ends is worth it in Swift Current, thanks to the folks over at the Repair Cafe. 

The Repair Cafe for the uninitiated, is a free repair show. Folks can bring in their broken odds and ends to the experts participating, who will attempt to fix what they can. 

Items like cell phones, power tools, clocks, jackets, mittens, boots, furniture, and more can all be saved thanks to these devoted craftsmen and women. 

Helping out at this year's last Repair Cafe last Saturday was Lloyd Fehr, who was helping out with electronics. 

"We had about 20 people show up at my electronics area," reckoned Fehr. "But there was probably close to 100 people that showed up the whole event."

The final total for items repaired at this Cafe was 113. These items ranged, as always, in make, model, and product. Some were more challenging than others, while some were simple fixes. 

"There was a ton of people, everything from electronics to computers to jewelry to bicycles to instruments, furniture," said Fehr. "Everything was being fixed."

Not everything was the humdrum of vacuums and wristwatches, Some of the stuff that gets brought into the Repair Cafe are objects that are near impossible to have repaired in regular shops, with their only hope being the devoted few with have the knowledge found at the Repair Cafe. 

"We had a really cool cuckoo clock this year that the bird didn't want to come out of its shell," recounted Fehr. "We spent a little bit of time and fixed the gears in it. Now that bird sings."

The next Repair Cafe is slated for spring, 2024, and will be free once again for the public. Folks are invited to come down and bring their busted, broken, and banged-up belongings. If all goes well, you could be leaving with them working, if not looking, like new. 

 

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