IS MOVING

All our sessions from 27 May will take place in the Godalming Borough Hall, Bridge Street, GU7 1HR, from 10.00am until 12.30pm

Less than 1 year after we opened, we have moved from one room to two rooms and now to a single large room to accommodate all our volunteers and owners.

It’s a new location but the same very personal service in which our fixers help you to mend your precious household items and keep them functioning, saving you money and the environment.

Our volunteers this month will help you with:

• Minor bicycle repairs
• IT/mobile phones/game controllers
• Mechanical problems (not clocks)
• Clothing repairs
• Toys
• Small electrical items
• Objects in wood, metal or ceramics

A PAT Tester will be available to test electrical goods.

NOTE:  ONLY ONE ITEM AT A TIME PER OWNER PLEASE

Next RCG event: 27 May 2023

Subsequent Dates:

24 June 2023
22 July 2023
26 August 2023
23 September 2023
28 October 2023
25 November 2023

Repair Cafe Godalming is looking for practical people who enjoy fixing and mending, especially those with electrical skills.

• You need not be an expert – just a problem-solver who is good at fixing things
• Use your skills to help keep something in use and out of the landfill. Who knows you may share your skills and make some new friends along the way!

Please use the contact form below to get in touch.

Members of the Rotary clubs in Godalming have established a Rotary-led repair cafe and on Saturday, 22 October we had a formal opening by the Town Mayor, Councillor Shirley Faraday. The photos show Councillor Faraday cutting the ribbon (held by Rotarian Jenny Mason) after a welcome by Ian Coult of the Godalming Woolsack Club and a speech by Moira Davies of the Godalming club on how the cafe was established. Ian and Moira are co-founders of the Cafe, together with Joy Poulter who was not able to attend. The Cafe now has around 30 volunteers with a wide range of skills and many were present for the group photo with the Mayor.

The idea for a repair cafe emerged at the start of 2022 and after visits to similar cafes in Haslemere and Farnham, from whom we received much enthusiastic support, we decided to try to establish one in Godalming.

Repair cafes exist to bring people with broken household items together with people who volunteer to help them fix the items. Everything is done voluntarily, including the provision of tea, coffee and cake, although the cafe does accept donations to help cover costs.

Repair cafes started in Amsterdam in 2010 and there are now around 2,500 worldwide, mostly in Europe. As far as we know, this is the first Rotary-led cafe and we are keen that other Rotary clubs should consider starting a cafe in their town, if one does not exist already. It is a great way to show that Rotary cares about the community and the environment, and cares about helping people to keep their household items working. This saves the owners the expense of a new purchase and saves the planet the costs of energy, materials and recycling or landfill.

WHO?

We are members of Rotary in Godalming who wish to kindle enthusiasm for a sustainable society by initiating a community project under the umbrella of the Repair Café Godalming. We are grateful to be supported by Godalming Town Council in this endeavour.

OUR GOAL IS

• to reduce landfill waste by repairing broken items or damaged goods
• foster a feeling of community,
• share repair skills and knowledge and
• save people some money in the process
• encourage you to value what you have!

WHY?

We throw away vast amounts of stuff, especially things with almost nothing wrong but which could get a new lease on life after a simple repair. Knowing how to make repairs is a skill quickly lost. Our education system does not teach basic repair skills, and corporations deliberately design products to have a short lifespan and no spare parts available to repair them, so we have to keep buying new products.

This is a threat to a sustainable future and to the circular economy, in which raw materials can be reused again and again. That’s why we decided to set up Repair Café Godalming!

But most of all, we just want to show you how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is to restore broken items.

HOW WILL WE DO IT?

Repair Cafés are free meeting places, and they’re all about the possibility of repairing things (together). Here you’ll find our volunteer fixers with repair skills and experience in all kinds of fields. With the support of our volunteer fixers, you will also find tools and materials to help make the repairs needed on clothes, furniture, small electrical appliances, watches, bicycles, crockery, toys, et cetera

Together with the required volunteer fixers, owners will discuss the issue regarding the broken item, and if agreed between the owner and the volunteer fixer, they can start making the required repairs in the Repair Café. It’s an ongoing learning process.

If you have nothing to repair, you can just join us for a cup of tea or coffee or share information about living a more sustainable life.

WHEN?

Every 4^th Saturday of the month owners can bring their broken items to the Repair Café Godalming.

Join us between 10 am-12.30 pm

WHERE?

The Borough Hall, Bridge Street, Godalming GU7 1HT

WHAT CAN WE REPAIR?

Within reason, we will give anything a go! But our volunteer fixers have offered to repair:

Clothes – wood, metal or ceramic objects – computer software/IT issues – bicycles- small household electrical goods – toys. We PAT test all fixed electrical items.

Please bear in mind some items may not be fixable, for example the internals of many toasters and steam irons cannot be accessed.

CONTACT US