Community Repair Events

March 2024

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
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  • (Port Townsend) JeffCo Repair Event
  • (Spokane) Beargrass Mending Circle
  • (Seattle) Fix-it Fair - Greenwood
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  • (Bellevue) Mending Circle @ Bellevue Library Makerspace
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  • (Forks) Mending Workshop @ Ginger's Closet
  • (Seattle) PNA Fixers @ Greenwood Hardware
  • (Seattle) Fix-it Workshop @ West Seattle Tool Library
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  • (Tacoma) Fix-it Night w/ Tacoma Tool Library
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  • (Ellensburg) Rodeo City Repair Café
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  • (Friday Harbor) San Juan Repair Fair
  • (Bellingham) NW Free Repair Event
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  • (Bellevue) Mending Circle @ Bellevue Library Makerspace
  • (Bellingham) NW Free Repairs - Repair Workshop
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  • (Seattle) Fix-it Workshop @ West Seattle Tool Library
  • (Wenatchee) Repair Café w/ Waste Loop
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  • (Tacoma) Fix-it Night w/ Tacoma Tool Library
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  • (Morton) Repair Event w/ WSU Lewis Co.
  • Mend-it Café w/Spokane Zero Waste
  • (Spokane) Repair Café Spokane
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  • (Bellingham) NW Free Repair Event
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  • (Bellevue) Mending Circle @ Bellevue Library Makerspace
  • (Des Moines) King Co. Repair Event
  • (Bellingham) NW Free Repairs - Repair Workshop
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  • (Shoreline) Fix-it Night @ Shoreline Tool Library
  • (Seattle) Fix-it Workshop @ West Seattle Tool Library
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  • (Tacoma) Fix-it Night w/ Tacoma Tool Library
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  • (Everett) Repair Café w/ WSU SnoCo.
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  • (Bellevue) Mending Circle @ Bellevue Library Makerspace
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  • (Seattle) Fix-it Workshop @ West Seattle Tool Library
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  • (Tacoma) Fix-it Night w/ Tacoma Tool Library
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  • (Federal Way) Repair Café @ So. King Tool Library
  • (Forks) Mending Workshop @ Ginger's Closet
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Have an upcoming Repair, Share, or Maker Event you’d like to get on this calendar? Share it with us!

Repair Economy Trainings & Events

See below for upcoming workshops and gatherings designed to educate and support the entire ecosystem of repair and reuse across Washington including our community repair groups, tool libraries, remakeries, professional repair shops, and other reuse-focused businesses.

Upcoming Events

Monthly Repair Economy Organizers Virtual Shop Talks 

Open to all those involved (or interested) in hosting repair events, organizing libraries of things, and running remakeries. Join your repair economy peers the 3rd Thursday of every month at 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. 

Previous Events

Supporting our small repair and reuse  businesses through 3 fantastic workshops! Learn more and check out the recorded sessions here 

December 12th & 13th

Day 1 – The Big Picture: How repair, reuse, and remaking is building community resilience and combatting climate change.

Day 2 – Shop Talk: Practical matters and peer problem solving.

 

December 4th, 2021

Gathering repair, tool library, and maker peers from across the Pacific NW for a day of sharing successes, solving challenges, and crafting audacious plans!

Topics covered:

  • > Silver Linings – Highlighting surprising wins from the past year
  • > Reflecting and Engaging Our Communities – Getting community and volunteer engagement right
  • > Practical Matters – Troubleshooting common challenges in repair events, tool libraries, and makerspaces
  • > Just Getting Started? – Q&A for emerging initiatives with opportunities for peer-mentorship
  • > Repair Economy Roadmap: What Is and What Could Be?- Exploring creative collaborations and aligning our efforts for greater impact
  • > Policy Updates & Organizing – What’s happening with Right-to-Repair and how to get involved
  • > Program Highlight: The ReMakery on Lopez Island

Attendees included: Fixers, makers, tool librarians, and staff or volunteers with those groups; as well as policymakers, workforce education advocates, and those just getting started with repair, share, or maker projects. 

Please feel free to email us if you’d like to know more about the event!

Hosted by Zero Waste Washington with generous funding from the WA Department of Ecology’s Public Participation Grant.

The mid-year gathering was a mini-conference featuring opportunities for community networking. We covered COVID-conscious event models (e.g. – outdoor and drive-through) as well as big picture movement topics like policy, just transition, and workforce development. Kyle Wiens, founder of iFixit, joined us to talk about the latest developments on the Right to Repair front!

Event date: Wednesday, May 26, 2021

UW’s very own Dr. Anu Taranath provided a riveting presentation about diversity, equity and inclusion; exploring the complex issues of bias and belonging through something we can all identify with: our hair. 

Event date: Sunday, March 28, 2021

Thanks to the support of the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau, we are able to provide this training for free for the RE community.

Early on Sunday morning, November 8th, an eager bunch of over 60 fixers, tool librarians, and makers met (virtually) for the statewide Repair Economy Conference. The conference brought together the leaders, staff, and volunteers of groups working to increase access to repair in Washington State and adjacent cities. The event goals were to connect these awesome community members and to address common challenges collaboratively.

With robust participation from groups in the Seattle and Tacoma area, we were also happy to have representation from Methow, Port Townsend, our neighbors to the north in Vancouver, B.C., from down south in Portland, even a few folks from California and the east coast! A big thank you goes to Ecology for funding this event through a PPG grant.

A growing repair movement

With ever greater awareness around overconsumption, planned obsolescence, resource depletion and the negative impacts of these issues to both environmental and social health, people are seriously rethinking their relationships with their “stuff.” The growing repair, share, maker movement has the potential to help us reclaim our collective right to get more life out of our possessions and change the cradle-to-grave “buy, consume, discard” status quo. This is as much about our mindset as it is about the skills and availability of tools.

Robust day of activities

The event featured meet-n-greets, three plenary sessions, a lively lunch discussion of policy solutions, and a series of breakouts designed to address practical issues.

Topics covered in the breakouts included COVID adaptations and resilience, Strategic and Business planning, Volunteer recruitment and management, Marketing strategies, and more.

Our plenary speakers were:

    • Sabrina Chakori – Founder at Brisbane Tool Library, Brisbane, Australia
    • Gene Homicki – Co-founder and CEO at myTurn tool tracking and sharing software
    • Derek Gaw – CEO at MakerLab, BC Vancouver
Check out their presentations below!

Feedback:

“It’s really nice to know that there are so many people doing this work just in this region and it’s energizing to feel how impassioned everyone is.”

“I loved connecting with folks from all over who share similar values and are working to grow the repair world/economy”

“Great job! Kudos to the planning committee. The speakers were great, and you did an amazing job doing this all online. It flowed great and I got lots out of it.”

“I really enjoyed this event and got much more out of it than I can put into words. Y’all did an amazing job, especially with how many people were there!…. I didn’t know how much I wanted to connect with all of you until now and these are a few ideas about how to do more. Thank you for introducing me to all these awesome people and all of the awesome work we are doing!!”

A BIG Thank You to the planning committee!

We couldn’t have brought this event together without the help of a terrific planning committee, including representatives from the following groups: Repair Clark County, Fab Lab Tacoma, SE Seattle Tool Library, Repair Cafe Port Townsend, NE Seattle Tool Library, Phinney Fixer Collective, West Seattle Tool Library, South King Tool Library, Zero Waste Vashon, Vashon Fix-It Café, and Share Reuse Repair Initiative – Vancouver, BC.

Event date: Sunday, November 8, 2020

Want to connect with other fixers, tool libraries, and makers around Washington?
Join the Repair Economy community hub on Hylo and jumpstart a conversation or even a project!

Repair Economy WA is made possible with generous funding from the WA Department of Ecology’s Public Participation Grant