Don Shriner first found out about Repair Café when he read about it online. Repair Café is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating people that if something is broken, it can be repaired and that we can break the cycle of creating a large carbon footprint. 

Shriner talked to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), a nonprofit organization, about it. Shriner had done volunteer work for IOOF and they gave him the space for the café, the property next to the cemetery on Brick Road.  He then began forming his team.

He put out a Facebook post asking  if anyone were interested in volunteering. Now, he and his team operate the Repair Café as a community run repair shop every second Saturday of the month at IOOF cemetery. 

Shriner founded the local branch a few years ago, but the Repair Café has been around for a longer time. According to repaircafe.org, it was originally founded by Martine Postma in Holland in 2009 and there are 1,500 Repair Cafés worldwide. 

Shriner said he and his team want to encourage people to judge whether the item is used up, worn out and done for, then bring it to the café so they can learn how to repair things on their own. Shriner said whether it’s a vacuum cleaner, a toaster or a heater, it can be easily repaired. 

“Everyone’s gotta do something,” Shriner said. “Even if something breaks beyond repair, there’s always parts. So, you’re always looking for ways to reverse engineer something.” 

Shriner said this allows people to diminish the size of their carbon footprint, eliminating the amount of trash that ends up in landfills.

According to Dennis Connors, a volunteer at the Repair Café, society has conditioned us to be consumers. Connors said that the assumption is that this is a one-way deal, but it doesn’t have to be that way. 

“My philosophy is even if you try to fix it and you fail,” Connors said. “You can’t make it any worse.” 

The objective of this café is to help people continue to use things that they have so they don’t have to go out and buy something else.

The other objective is to teach people that they can repair things on their own, that’s when the instructive angle of this café comes into play. The volunteers allow the patrons to be hands on, whether they’re picking up a screwdriver and fixing it themselves, or just holding something in their hands.

Pico Cantieni, a volunteer at the Repair Café, and Shriner are old friends who have been talking about putting the café together for years. 

“It’s fun and rewarding, but some people have no interest in fixing things themselves,” Cantieni said. “That’s why we’re here.” 

While working with a customer, the first thing Cantieni asks is, “How does it work?”

Scott Nicolai is a volunteer who has only been doing this for a few months. He found out about the cafe when he ran into Schriner at the farmer’s market.

“If I can help someone fix something, that makes me feel better,” Nicolai said.

Suzanne Blakeney is a volunteer at the Repair Café, she heard about the cafe through a Facebook ad that Shriner posted.

Blakeney said she finds a lot of satisfaction in repairing things and wants to teach the younger generation that it can be fun learning how to fix things on their own.

Shriner would like to say to the younger generation that all of the volunteers are incredibly knowledgeable on how to fix these things and wants to share it with us.

“Everyone in there has a lot of knowledge on how to fix these things,” Shriner said. “It would be a shame to see it die out.” 

Shriner said he and his team would like to gain more volunteers. 

“The best way to get involved is to just show up here on the second Saturday of every month,” Shriner said.

According to Nicolai, the most important thing is to teach people how to fix things and teach them why we would want to fix them. 

“We’re all in this together,” Nicolai said. “We’re all here to help each other out.” 

The next Repair Café is on Nov. 9 at 11 a.m. Details can be found on www.rcrcellensburg.org