Honiton: Repair Cafe's receives large donation from happy customer

Honiton's Repair Café returned for its second event on Saturday and they received a large donation from a satisfied customer.

A Repair Café is where people take along items to be repaired and volunteers try to fix it. The idea behind it is to reduce waste, help the environment and save people money, for example last month saw a pram fixed for a young mum.

The first event was held last month and it went very well.

The Honiton Repair Café was established by Miriam Thomas and it is part of an umbrella group called Community Action Group. After last month's event she told Nub News: "It is amazing what a community can achieve when everyone pulls together. I would like to add my thanks to Sheena, for taking over at short notice and all the great volunteers who gave her valuable support,

This weekend's café saw a sharp increase in the number of visitors who came in needing things to be repaired - 16 people visited the café and nine had things fixed for them. Items which were fixed included solar lights, a vacuum cleaner, a bicycle and a pair of trousers.

The owner of Tip Top Trees, Mrs England (a tree surgeon company) had visited the café during the last session to have a jewellery box repaired, which has great sentimental value.

She returned to the Repair Café on Saturday and made a donation of £250. Mrs England said: "I was greatly impressed by this initiative and think that it is a truly wonderful resource which I hope will be used by many.

"The donation is in loving memory of my son Sean's adored Aunt Jean, who was the original recipient of the jewellery box.

"My Grandfather lost his right arm in the First World War and part of his healing and training therapy was in woodwork, painting and embroidery to enable him to learn to use his left hand to better effect.

"He made the box as a 21st. birthday gift to my sister who sadly died last year. I intend the box to remain in the family and be passed down through the generations, my granddaughters have already expressed an interest in receiving it when the time comes."

Miriam told Nub News: "We are still overwhelmed at being shown such faith at receiving such a donation. I can think of many things we might need it for. We could buy an extra soldering iron, or batteries, extra tools, buttons for the sewers or clamps. We will consult with the repairers to find out what would be most useful for them."

Mrs England's son Sean explained to Miriam how he used to enjoy coming to the building as a teenager when it was the Youth Centre and Miriam said: "It was great to see him walking down memory lane and remembering the bar upstairs"

Despite the success of the last two sessions, the Repair Café is still very much in need of more volunteers. If you have any repairing skills, can make cakes or would like to help the café run smoothly please contact Miriam via the CAG website.