Joliet Junior College’s Saturday event offers chance to get some repairs done

Romeoville — Joliet Junior College will host its first official Repair Cafe event at its Romeoville campus Saturday, giving members of the community a chance to breathe new life into their broken belongings.

During the event, which will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., volunteer “fixers” will be on-site to offer their services free to guests who bring in damaged items in need of repair. The event is part of JJC’s “Earth Month” activities this month as it helps keep items out of landfills.

While the event is new to JJC, Repair Cafe events are part of an international movement that began 15 years ago in Amsterdam. There are more than 2,500 Repair Cafe chapters worldwide, although they are less common in the U.S., particularly in the Midwest. JJC’s Repair Cafe will become the sixth in Illinois and the ninth in the Midwest, joining two in northern Michigan and one in St. Louis.

“The Repair Cafe motto is ‘Toss it? No way!’ ” said Maria Anna Rayfac, a professor of architecture and sustainability at JJC, who serves as the campus sustainability coordinator. “We want to help the environment and peole with these events by keeping things in the economy instead of dumping and replacing them.”

Rayfac is organizing the event along with student sustainability intern Ash Klinder, who discovered the Repair Cafe concept while doing research into possible campus sustainability initiatives.

“I found one in Oak Park run by a man called Mac Robinet, who is a retired nuclear physicist from Argonne Labs,” Klinder said. “I went to check it out, and he was great explaining it to me. His vision of Repair Cafe is finding a way to empower the community. The work he does for environmental justice is just great. It’s a step for people taking care of each other and the planet.”

The Oak Park Repair Cafe was the second chapter of the organization to start in the U.S. Not only did Robinet introduce Klinder to Repair Cafe as a concept, he volunteered as one of the fixers at JJC’s smaller pilot event October 21 for “International Repair Day.”

“Not only is it great for people to get things fixed, but these events are really good for retired people who have a lot of skills and often don’t have an outlet to share them with the community,” Klinder said.

JJC has 15 fixers signed up to volunteer at the event. They range from 20-year-old students to retirees in their 80s.

Klinder said the event not only serves to repair items that are brought in, but also to provide a learning opportunity for community members, as fixers will help explain the repair process for things such as sewing to the customers so they can repair more on their own going forward.

During the October event, Klinder and Rayfac said more than 50 items were brought in to be repaired and 48 were fixed. This time, they hope to see a few hundred people come to the event.

The event will offer repairs on items that fall into seven categories: textiles and clothing, electronics, ceramics, jewelry, bicycles, small furniture and miscellaneous. The school’s 3D printing lab will be open during the event. If it is determined that an item can be fixed by creating a replacement piece with 3D printing, JJC students and staff can work with community members to design a component over time.

The amount of goods that will be able to be fixed during the course of the day will depend on how many of each item type is brought in and the availability of fixers, which is something the organizers hope will become easier to coordinate as the event grows with time and more people begin volunteering. They anticipate a high demand for seamstresses, and anyone who wants to volunteer to sew or offer other repair skills can sign up by emailing Klinder at ashley.klinder@jjc.edu.

“I’m so happy people think this idea is cool,” Klinder said. “It’s so easy, and there’s really nothing else like it. “We can’t save the planet unless we help people first. I hope this is a way to get community needs met and maybe expose people more to the issues of climate change. Climate change is a big scary thing, but it’s something we are able to change. Everyone can help by doing little things like this.”

If the event is a success, Rayfac said JJC plans to host two each year, one in April and one in October for National Campus Sustainability Month.

“JJC has been very supportive of us,” Rayfac said. “We go all out when we do things here, and this is no exception. Hopefully this event will still be going long after me and Ash have moved on.”