HOW DID THE REPAIR CAFE SYDNEY NORTH (RCSN) GET STARTED?
On October 18, 2015, Wendy Bishop introduced the sustainability wonders of a repair cafe to the Permaculture North Sydney North Willoughby Local Group meeting. Until then no one present at the meeting knew anything about repair cafe. However, all were excited by the potential of what a Repair Cafe could do for the environment, for sharing repair skills and for community building. Soon after this fateful meeting, Wendy Dwyer who co-ordinates the Willoughby Local Group (WLG) met with Wendy Bishop and Alasdair Stuart to discuss the setting up of a first Repair Cafe on the North Shore.The wheel was set in motion…
Mandy Stubbs another WLG member and President of the Permapatch Community Garden which is located at the back of the Chatswood South Uniting Church negotiated successfully for the use of the Church Hall for the running of the Repair Cafe. RCSN now had a home! Soon after, RCSN became an affiliate of the Permapatch Community Garden.
Permaculture Sydney North kindly donated $500 for the initial setup cost. Notices were sent to all WLG members on the imminent set up of a repair cafe and almost immediately both Bridget Kennedy and Sarah Millar registered as our first volunteer repairers!
We signed up to be a member of the Global Repair Cafe Association based in Holland, received a starter kit on how to set up a repair cafe, use the signature repair logo and we were off! We wasted no time and proudly opened RCSN to the community in January 2016. Toss it? No way!!!
We’re now located at The Living and Learning Centre, 180 Longueville Road, Lane Cove 2066. Open the first and second Sunday of the month, 2-4pm. Bookings not required, first come first served.
Can’t make it into a Repair Cafe? Check out our resources page to help with your DIY repair.