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 Vanessa from Presteigne
Q: What is your name, which repair café location do you volunteer at and what’s your role / skill?
A: Vanessa Pawsey, volunteering at Presteigne Repair Cafe. I am happy to tackle sewing, darning, glueing, replacing or sorting out zips, restringing beads, tasks which may need bits of wire or cane, leather etc. Things I have mended or made include an earring clip, a panama hat, a sandal heel strap, purse zips, jumpers, specs frame.
Q: Why did you decide to volunteer with Repair Cafe Wales?
A: I have an abiding feeling I should do more to help other people. In the past I volunteered in various ways; with Border Marches Early Music Forum, REMAP in Hereford, and Mums and Toddlers in Whitton until it closed.
The Repair Café appealed to me because I love making things and take great pleasure when I can solve mechanical problems.
Q: What do you like best about the repair café?
A: The other volunteers at the Repair Café are a welcoming, generous and congenial bunch and it is interesting to meet the hopeful owners of broken things. It is very gratifying when they are delighted when their busted objects are useable again.
Q: What has been the most challenging item to repair?
A: The repair that pleased me most was a repair of the badly glued frame of some specs broken when the owner on her bike ran into a car. The opticians had declared them irreparable. Her own efforts meant the lens would no longer fit. The other very happy repair at which I assisted was to put a new nose on a tiger.
Q: What do you think the repair café does for the community?
A: I hope members of the community will benefit by saving money, learning that more things can be repaired instead of replaced and consequently will buy less stuff and throw fewer things away.
Q: Would you recommend volunteering for Repair Cafe Wales? Why?
A: I would urge anyone with time and skills in repairing to join a Repair Café.
