‘So much more efficient’: Lincoln Repair Café offering free fixes for the community

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Neighbors are helping neighbors around the community.

The Lincoln Repair Café meets monthly to offer repairs for broken household items, clothing or jewelry.

The group is made up of volunteers with an assortment of skills and the background to provide the most help for everyone.

Larry James, who has volunteered for over eight years, told Channel 8 with so much uncertainty in the economy right now, they have seen an increase in people coming in.

“We have become more popular than ever,” he said. “It’s so much more efficient to get something fixed rather than buy something new, and the new stuff keeps going up in price, people have much more emphasis to get stuff fixed.”

The Repair Café also prides itself on helping the environment.

“That’s part of our emphasis, to keep things out of a landfill,” James said.

He added that the response from the community has been very positive.

“They love that we’re here. They love to come get stuff fixed,” he said. “They’re generous with donations. You bring something here, you get it fixed and there’s never a charge. Everything’s free, freewill donation for anything you can spare.”

James also said it’s all about bringing people together, especially in their times of need.

“Most of us, like myself, grew up poor. I had to learn to fix things because you couldn’t always replace things,” he said. “A lot of our clientele are on fixed income, this neighborhood is not wealthy so we save people a little bit of money if we can.”

The next Repair Café is scheduled for June 21st at 1 PM in the New Visions United Methodist Church.