'A huge learning experience': Regina's Centennial Mall holds inaugural repair café

Regina’s Centennial Mall hosted an event over the weekend with one purpose in mind — reduce, reuse, and recycle.

The inaugural Repair Café hosted an array of specialities, ranging from electronics to sewing to furniture repair.

“So, you can bring in any small appliances, or like bikes or sewing, we have a lot of sewers ready to help repair. Its totally free, you can bring it all down and we can help teach you as well as help you repair,” Matt Thompson, member of the Centennial Market Board, told CTV News.

Thompson said he was inspired by similar events he’s seen over the years, and wanted to bring the workshop to Regina.

“I’ve seen them happen in other areas before and I thought it was really cool,” he said. “I’m big on the environment, so when I saw this kind of concept, it immediately intrigued me.”

The event, held in partnership with the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council and Affinity Credit Union, is aimed at stopping the practices of a “throw away society.”

“We’re kind of a throw away society and we need to start fixing that. We need to start actually fixing things and reusing things,” Thompson explained.

“There are a lot of things that we put in the garbage without even attempting to fix it and I think that is something we as a society need to start looking at stopping.”

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With the work being done for free, the real payment is education for those who attend and a few less things ending up in the city landfill.

“We’re thinking we’ll probably have it as a reoccurring event, we’ll probably have two a year and we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

“This is our very first one so it’s a huge learning experience.”

More information about the café can be found on the Centennial Mall’s website.