(Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Repair Café

Repair Café receives wave of community support since reopening after pandemic hiatus

Jul 8, 2023 | 5:08 PM

The Repair Café was back in Prince Albert for another Saturday at Gateway Mall.

This is the fifth time the Repair Café has come back to the mall after reopening in March of this year following a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Les Dickson spearheads the Repair Café where he told paNOW the response from the community since reopening has been nothing short of amazing.

“It’s been really good,” he said. “This is a really good location in the mall. We get more exposure with foot traffic and it’s a great offer from the science centre to host us.”

During the pandemic, the Repair Café was a victim of a robbery as thieves raided a locked cabinet in the City Yards of the Café’s tools. Since then, the City of Prince Albert and Lake Country Co-op have each gifted the Café $500 to help replace the items that were stolen.

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On top of that, Dickson said that the community has also stepped up and donated both tools and money of their own to the organization.

“Every time we’ve had it, people always put money in the donation box so that really helps as well,” he said. “We’re pretty much self-sufficient in terms of tools.”

Some of tools that the Repair Café has collected since being robbed during the pandemic. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

Since reopening, Dickson listed off some items they have repaired including, vacuums, lamps, and even quite a bit of clothes. He added that the Repair Café doesn’t just fix, but they also teach.

“We try to work with the people too so we can show them what we done and help get them so they can troubleshoot some of their own problems,” Dickson explained.

He also teased the idea of adding different workshops in the fall with classes such as soldering.

The Repair Café is set up in the Prince Albert Science Centre space at Gateway Mall on the first Saturday of every month as long as the space is available. The Café is open from 1-4pm.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann