​Kincardine’s first Repair Café a community success

The Kincardine Environmental Action Network (KEAN) hosted a soft launch of Kincardine’s first Repair Café, Saturday morning, at Grey Matter Brewing Company.

The event brought together KEAN volunteers, supporters, and local fixers to celebrate the power of repair, reuse, and community connection.

In just a few hours, participants managed to save 11 items from the landfill, giving new life to everything from jewellery and clothing to electronics and bicycles. Highlights included a repaired necklace, revived neon light, restored dress bodice, and newly-fixed bike tire.

The café featured a talented line-up of volunteer fixers:
 

• Electrical - Dave Vermey
• Sewing - Katrena Johnston and May Lynne Soong
• Jewellery and ceramics - Jane Rigby
• Bicycle - Gwynth Mitchell and Martin Weatherall

“It was a great soft launch and a real community effort,” said Kim Armitage of KEAN, one of the event organizers. “We talked environment, repair, and community — and proved the concept. Small steps like this can make a big difference.”

KEAN is a local grassroots environmental organization that promotes sustainability and climate action through community-led initiatives. The Repair Café model, which began in Amsterdam and has since spread globally, encourages people to fix rather than toss their broken items — saving resources, reducing waste, and sharing valuable repair skills. KEAN is hoping to have the repair café running independently by the end of next year.

Encouraged by the success of this soft launch, KEAN and its partners are already planning a full-scale Repair Café in the new year, expanding to include repairs for plastics, mechanical items and knitted items.