[photo credit: Photo: Repair Cafe]
The Repair Café runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Aveson Global Leadership Academy, 300 Madre St. The volunteer-run organization, founded in Pasadena in 2012, is the oldest U.S. chapter of a global movement that aims to keep repairable items out of landfills. Registration is available at repair-cafe-pasadena.
Repair stations typically include stitching, electronics, computer help, plant and garden advice, bike repair, knife sharpening, jewelry repair, gluing, and woodworking. The organization does not repair sewing machines, cathode ray tube televisions, cell phone screens, microwaves, or e-bikes.
Attendees should arrive early for electronics and appliance repairs, as those stations stop accepting items at noon to give fixers time to complete their work. Items must be in clean condition, and attendees must bring any needed replacement parts — the organization cannot provide them. Consultations on what parts may be needed count as a repair.
“We just want to start a culture where people fix their own item and treasure it,” Ginko Lee, the organization’s team lead, told NBC Los Angeles in 2023.
Repair Café Pasadena is an offshoot of Transition Pasadena, an environmental community action group, and is affiliated with more than 2,500 Repair Cafés operating worldwide, according to the Repair Café International Foundation. The first Repair Café was organized in Amsterdam in 2009.
“It’s a philosophy in a lot of respects, isn’t it, reducing, reusing, recycling?” Tom Brady, a retired Pasadena recycling coordinator who volunteers at the knife-sharpening station, told the Pasadena Star-News in 2023. “You can’t go through life trashing everything.”
A Really, Really Free Market operates alongside the Repair Café, where people can bring unwanted items to give away and take home items they need at no cost.
Parking is available in a lot accessible from Del Mar Boulevard, marked in hot pink, with additional street parking on all four streets surrounding the school.
For more information or to register, visit repair-cafe-pasadena.
The next Repair Café after this one has not yet been announced. Events are typically held every couple of months on Saturdays.
