We have some pretty amazing people in the Repair Cafe Wales Family

As part of a new initiative we will be running a series on getting to know our volunteers. We’ve set a series of questions and our amazing volunteers have answered them ‘virtually’ for us.

Next up in the series is Peter from Fishguard and Goodwick.

Q:What is your name, which repair café location do you volunteer at and what’s your role / skill?

A: Pete Hollingsworth, volunteering at Fishguard. Role? – being ‘Mr Fixit’ for mechanical items, cycles, tools, or timber items; occasionally for electrical goods.

Q: Why did you decide to volunteer with Repair Cafe Wales?

A: Complete sympathy with the Remakery ethos; a desire to put a lifetime’s experience in engineering and teaching to further use. 

Q: What do you like best about the repair café?

A: Meeting others similarly motivated; tackling a wide variety of repair/restoration/re-cycling projects; learning of similar initiatives in other parts of the UK.

Q: What is your favourite part of volunteering?

A: Mucky hands, cheerful ‘cuppas’. And the pleasure and satisfaction of seeing a ‘remade’ project in the hands of someone who appreciates its value, and feels they have found a bargain…and may be less inclined in the future to be part of the ‘throw away’ economy. 

Peter Volunteer Wales

Q: What has been the most challenging item to repair?

A: Most repairs have their challenges – it’s difficult to identify any one as the greatest challenge – however, if the word ‘frustrating’ is substituted for ‘challenging’, then items manufactured without thought or care for their possible repair would head the list.

Q: What do you think the repair café does for the community?

A: Repair cafes demonstrate end encourage greater responsibility in the purchase, use, and eventual disposal of goods and rescourses; encouraging local community awareness and support for recycling. Not infrequently, members of the public find much satisfaction and pleasure in seeing an item, eg., family heirlooms, restored and functioning.

Q: Have you gained any skills from the experience?

A: Mostly consolidating existing skills 

Q: How does the repair café make you feel?

A: At the end of a busy session: exhausted, but buoyant. 

Q: Would you recommend volunteering for Repair Cafe Wales? Why?

A: Anyone putting practical skills to use for the benefit of the local community would in all likelyhood find the experience most rewarding.