How fixing broken things is creating community connection

Correction: A previous version of the story misnamed the Maple Ridge Repair Cafe as Ridge-Meadows Repair Cafe.

When Bob Denison was a kid in the ‘60s, he used to listen to music on a gramophone, an analogue record player that has its sound projected from a metal horn (which is now recognizable as a Grammy).

One day, he cranked the gramophone too hard, breaking it.

Decades later, these memories resurfaced when Denison found himself fixing a portable gramophone brought into a Maple Ridge Repair Cafe, where he’s an avid volunteer. 

He worked with the woman who brought it in to identify the issue: a thin piece of metal that had been soldered to the horn had fallen inside the record player, preventing it from standing upright.

They turned it upside down, the metal fell out, and they soldered the horn back to the record player. 

He had the woman carefully wind up the gramophone and put a record on. Music played.  

“No amplifiers, all mechanical, and just the playing of the record,” he said.

“That was one of the coolest things to fix.”

Denison has fixed numerous items over the years at the monthly Maple Ridge Repair Cafes, which is in its eighth year of operation. He’ll take a look at almost anything electrical or mechanical, but the most common things people bring him are electric fans, vacuum cleaners, and coffee makers.

If he isn’t sure how to fix something, he can turn to other volunteers at the Repair Cafe and ask for their help.

“It’s one big family that assists at a final goal, when somebody shows up, we do our level best — multiple heads put together — to fix whatever you brought,” Denison said.

Repair Cafe volunteers aren’t able to fix everything, with Denison noting that obsolescence is built into so many items these days. But at the very least, they can work with people to take something apart and show them what’s wrong with it.

“You can’t put a dollar figure on making somebody’s day, and seeing their expression,” said Denison. “It’s invaluable. It’s such a good feeling.”

Repair culture

Like with the woman who brought in the gramophone, volunteers teach people who bring in items for repair how to do fix them.

“It’s not like you drop it off and then pick it up later. You’re actually there and they teach and show how you open it up, and then how you test to find out what the problem is, and then how to fix it,” said Leanne Koehn, the community engagement manager for Ridge Meadows Recycling Society, who runs the Repair Cafes.

Koehn says they see lots of clocks, pants and necklaces brought in, alongside unique items (like gramophones).

“You get to hear the stories about why people held on to these things for so long, because there’s a lot of value that is in it,  and reasons why they didn’t just throw it out,” said Koehn.

This creates social connection, which Koehn said is an important part of the Repair Cafe.

“It’s a very low pressurized situation where you just bring something, they look at it, you talk about it, you fix it, if you can.”

The idea is to also empower people to repair things when they break, rather than just toss them out. Metro Vancouver currently disposes of 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of garbage per person each year, and in 2022 it sent 305,000 tonnes to landfills or incinerators.

From the Netherlands to Maple Ridge

When Koehn first heard about the concept of repair cafes about nine or 10 years ago,  it stuck.

“I think a lot of people, as soon as they hear about it, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s such a good idea.’ It just makes so much sense to fix stuff instead of throwing it away and buying a new one,” she said.

Repair Cafes originated in the Netherlands in 2009, when a Dutch journalist, Martine Postma, noticed all the appliances thrown out in her neighbhourhood in Amsterdam that could have been fixed. She’s since founded the Repair Cafe International Foundation, with the mission to make repairing part of local communities. Now, there’s over 2,500 of them across the globe.

Koehn wanted to bring this idea home. She gathered volunteers in the area, got a federal grant to cover expenses, bought some tools, and started to plan monthly events.  The Maple Ridge Repair Cafe was one of the first with consistent events in the Metro Vancouver region. 

“We were the ones that kind of started and said, ‘Okay, we’re doing these monthly.’ And so it became a very reliable thing,” Koehn explained. 

Now, they have a roster of about 60 volunteers, and will be hosting their 50th event this May.

Maple Ridge is listed on the Repair Monitor Dashboard as the sixth repair cafe internationally with the most repairs. Currently, they’ve logged 2,819 repairs and a 70 per cent repair rate.

Koehn said they ask that people don’t bring any gas powered items, like lawn mowers, that could be flammable or explosive.

“But other than that, if they can bring it, we’ll try and help them fix it.”

“There’s a kind of magic to it as well. You feel like a superstar once you fix something. It just is such a sense of empowerment,” she said.

The next cafe is at Maple Ridge’s Earth Day festival on April 26.