Repair Café Whanganui’s official opening

Michelle Wongkhom and her son James were at Repair Café Whanganui’s official opening to get an old sewing machine assessed. Photo/Jacqui McGowan

A 100-year-old clock face, a homemade wooden toy train in two parts, a juicer from the 1980s, and a 50-year-old garden fork with a wobbly handle were among 38 items fixed at Repair Café Whanganui’s official opening on Saturday.

Councillor Charlotte Melser had her 16-year-old microphone fixed by musical instrument and sound technician Dave Griffiths, who soldered the wiring to reattach the input.

Michelle Wongkhom brought her 70-year-old sewing machine to be assessed by David Scheepers, who came from Foxton with his wife Irene to check six machines booked in earlier. ”There was a problem with the tension,” she said. “David was very helpful, indeed.”

A further 10 items needed more time than was available at the event and have been taken home byrepairers, including one of the group’s teddy bear surgeons, Kathrine Grey.

“I’m very pleased to be able to help,’” Grey said, “Teddies hold a special place in people’s hearts.”

The response from the Whanganui community blew us all away, Repair Café Whanganui project lead Margi Keys said.

“There were lots of people queuing up from 10 o’clock, so we let them in at 10.30 because we were more or less ready, even though we weren’t originally going to open the front door until 10.55 when councillor Charlotte was scheduled to do the honours,” she said.

“Our team of 24 volunteers was extremely busy until 12.30, when the last item was accepted for repair.

“About 100 visitors passed through the front door to a hive of activity generated by the 13 repairers and their tools. And our café was busy, too. All the donated home baking was eaten,” she said.

Half the visitors brought at least one item to be repaired. The next event is on May 25.