#CriticalMass - List of Rides around the World! (Many of them are the last Friday of the month, but not all of them.)

"The following is a partial list of Critical Mass bicycle rides around the world. Some rides may no longer exist and most certainly not every ride is listed here.

"Unless otherwise stated, rides are held on the last Friday of every month at 5.30pm."

https://criticalmass.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_rides

#SolarPunkSunday #WeAreTraffic
#BicycleSafety #BuildingCommunity #Bikes #BikeTooters #OwnTheRoad

#BicycleCoalitionOfMaine - #CascoME Bike Rodeo!

May 3 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

"FREE COMMUNITY EVENT DESIGNED TO TEACH AND ENCOURAGE KIDS TO RIDE BIKES SAFELY! There will be helmet giveaways, prizes, and snacks!"

Crooked River Elementary School
1437 Poland Spring Rd
Casco, Maine 04015
United States

https://www.bikemaine.org/event/bike-rodeo-casco/

#BicycleCoalitionOfMaine - #DoverFoxcroftME Bike Rodeo!

May 3 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

"Bring your kids and their bikes/helmets to this FREE bicycle safety event! Designed to teach and encourage kids to ride bikes safely on the road. The rodeo will include a helmet check, a bike mechanical check, and time to ride in a closed continuous-flow traffic skills course that teaches the rules of the road. Practice safe riding skills and have fun!"

https://www.bikemaine.org/event/bcm-bike-rodeo-dover-foxcroft/

#SolarPunkSunday
#BicycleSafety #BuildingCommunity #Bikes #BikeTooters

#ScarboroughME - Bike Barn Bonanza

May 3 @ 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

"What: A “Bike Barn Bonanza” – a used bike sale.

Where: Ketcha Outdoors Barn, Spurwink Rd, Scarborough.

When: May 3rd, 2025, from 9 AM to 12 PM.

Who: Organized by Portland Gear Hub and Ketcha Outdoors.

Purpose: To find great deals on quality used bikes for all ages while supporting outdoor adventure and bike education programs. What to expect: Hybrid, road, mountain, kids, and tandem bikes for sale, as well as helmets and blinky lights. Location: The event will be held at the Ketcha Outdoors barn in Scarborough. More Info: You can learn more about Portland Gear Hub at portlandgearhub.org."

https://www.bikemaine.org/event/bike-barn-bonanza/

#BicycleCoalitionOfMaine - Fix-A-Bike - #BangorME

April 29 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

"Be your own mechanic! The Bicycle Coalition of Maine will provide the tools and instruction for this workshop. Learn how to maintain your bike, fix a flat, pump up a tire, change a chain or cable, make shifting adjustments, and more in a hands-on learning experience. This 2-hour-long workshop will take place outdoors. If the weather is inclement, it will take place in the Atrium.

"Bring your own bike, helmet, and any tools you have you’d like to practice using.

"Registration required."

https://www.bikemaine.org/event/bcm-fix-a-bike-bangor-3/

#ReuseRepair #SolarPunkSunday
#BicycleRepair #BicycleMaintenance #BuildingCommunity #Bikes #BikeTooters #BikeRepair
#RightToRepair #ReuseRepairRecycle #BangorPublicLibrary

#CharlottesvilleVA - #RepairCafé coming up at #ScrappyElephant

Apr 18, 2025

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- "People with a broken piece of jewelry or some clothing that needs to be fixed might be able to get it done for free at an upcoming event.

"The Cville TimeBank will be holding a Repair Café at the Scrappy Elephant on Allied Street on April 26.

"Attendees can bring up to three items in need of repair.

"Volunteers will be on hand to fix items. Repairs will be limited to 25 minutes if there are others waiting for assistance.

"However, organizers say there will be no jewelry soldering or extensive bead restringing at this event.

"This event is free to attend and open to the community. For more information, click on the link below:

https://ctbrepaircafe.wordpress.com/

Source:
https://www.cbs19news.com/news/repair-caf-coming-up-at-scrappy-elephant/article_942777e1-afae-4c5a-bfea-8b8e6062d283.html

#WestbrookME - #BicycleCoalitionOfMaine #MountainBike Maintenance Class

April 24 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

"Want to upgrade your bike or find out how to perform regular servicing on your rig? This is the class for you! Learn the tips and tricks to keeping your bike in top riding shape all year round with our intermediate maintenance class specifically geared towards maintaining hardtail and full-suspension mountain bikes. This program is made possible in partnership with Mast Landing Brewing Company, Gorham Parks and GPNemba. Register at the link below."

Free for BCM Members. $45 for non-members.

Mast Landing Brewing Company – Westbrook
920 Main St
Westbrook, Maine 04092 United States

https://www.bikemaine.org/event/bcm-mountain-bike-maintenance-class-2/

#ReuseRepair #SolarPunkSunday
#BicycleRepair #BicycleMaintenance #BuildingCommunity
#RightToRepair #ReuseRepairRecycle

#BathME - May 3 @ 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

"Come to the #RepairCafe, where our expert volunteers can fix your everyday items and keep them out of the landfill. They can even show you how to do it yourself! We can fix:

- Electronics & Computers
- Clothing & Leather goods
- Small appliances & lamps
- Wooden furniture
- Knife sharpening
- 3D-printed repairs
- #Bike maintenance and repairs"

#HabitatRestore
1 Chandler Dr SUITE 2
Bath, Maine 04530 United States

https://www.bikemaine.org/event/repair-cafe-with-the-bcm/

So, after today's #FightForTheFuture, please join myself (and anyone else who'd like to chime in) for tomorrow's #SolarPunkSunday ! Even though it's a holiday for some, I'll still be posting about #RepairCafes, #Gardening, #Degrowth, and other related subjects! It's time to plant #SeedsOfChange!

#Colorado - #Libraries and the ‘economy of sharing’

An ode to the palace of the people

By Kaylee Harter - Apr. 9, 2025

"Visit one of BPL’s #makerspaces, a feature that’s become a staple in many libraries, and you can use #3DPrinters, #looms, #LaserCutters, #ScreenPrinting equipment and more.

" 'It’s a collaborative learning environment,' Farnan says. 'We’re learning together. If you were to go into the makerspace today and ask, like, ‘I’m thinking about doing this,’ then they would say, ‘I don’t know how to do that, but let’s figure it out.’

" 'That is inherently resilient.'

"He recalls a blind artist who came in with a unique challenge: 'She wanted to be able to see her drawings.'

" 'They worked with her with 3D printers, with the laser cutters and that kind of thing, in order to transfer her drawings into dimensional objects, because they were abstractions, so that she could then see them with her fingers.'

"Despite the always expanding array of programming and services, the books themselves — and literacy for all ages — are ever important."

https://boulderweekly.com/special-editions/libraries-and-the-economy-of-sharing/

#Canada - #RepairCafé sews, bolts, and seals up the leaky, slow, and damaged

Written by Hayden Michaels Tuesday, Apr 01 2025, 6:00 AM

"The #SwiftCurrent Repair Café has once again come and gone and left the world a better working place.

"From clocks to mixers, from radios to jackets, almost anything that could fit through the door was examined, diagnosed, and put back in working order. While the volunteers can't tackle anything too out there or too large, they make sure to stitch, staple, and suture what they can mend.

"This year, Keegan Story and the rest of the volunteer handymen and women were happy to help fix 80 per cent of the items brought to them.

" 'Electronics and appliances are one of our busier areas,' shared Story. 'Today they fixed a kid's toy DVD player, a vacuum cleaner and a few other miscellaneous electronics.'

"One of the special booths at this event was the #PinballMachine corner. Kids were infatuated as local Pinball Wizard/technician Darwin Gooding built one of his '70s machines and let them play with the finished product.

"Other interesting fixes were computers, mechanical clocks, clothing, and just about anything and everything else that Swift Current brought out.

"The goal of the Repair Café is to mend items that normally would go in the trash. Be it their disposable nature, or the unrealistic monetary nature of certain fixes, this bi-yearly event unshackles practicality in favour of keeping what is old, new, and what is broken, pristine.
A child learns about circuitry, causing a rotor to fly up, up, and away!A child learns about circuitry, causing a rotor to fly up, up, and away!

" 'We've got a lot of people here that are handy that just like to offer their support,' said Story. 'We're keeping some stuff out of the landfill and keeping some money in people's pockets.'

"The next Repair Café will be held on October 25, 2025. Anyone looking to volunteer is encouraged to reach out via the Repair Café website or to contact them on Facebook."

https://swiftcurrentonline.com/articles/repair-caf-sews-bolts-and-seals-up-the-leaky-slow-and-damaged

#RepairCafesCanada #SaskatchewanCanada #RepairCafes #RightToRepair #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair #ReuseRepair
#SolarPunkSunday

#Denmark - #RepairCafeDanmark

"Repair Cafe Danmark er en non-profit forening med danske Repair Cafeer i hele landet. Alle arbejder 100% frivilligt i de lokale afdelinger.

"Foreningens formål er at facilitere og motivere frivillige, forbrugere, foreninger og kommuner til afholdelse af og deltagelse i Repair Cafeer og derved reducere affald, ændre forbrugsmønstre og skabe viden om og lyst til grøn omstilling.

"Hjælp os med til at gøre noget ved udledning af CO2. Ved at #reparere frem for at købe nyt nedbringer du forbruget af nye produkter og mindsker udledningen ved produktion, transport og bortskaffelse, til gavn for det fremtidige liv på Jorden.

English: "Repair Cafe is a non-profit organization with repair initiatives all over Denmark. We are all 100% volunteers in the local Repair Cafes.

"Our purpose is to facilitate and motivate volunteers, consumers, organizations and municipalities to create and/or participate in Repair Cafes and thereby help reduce waste, change consumption patterns and creating knowledge about a green future. We want to change today’s throw-away society by teaching consumers that it is possible to repair, rather than just throwing out and buying new."

https://repaircafedanmark.dk/

More information about our project here: Om Repair Cafe:
https://repaircafedanmark.dk/om/

#Danmark #RepairCafesDenmark #RepairCafeesDanmark #RepairCafes #RightToRepair #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair #ReuseRepair
#SolarPunkSunday

#UK - The Restart Project! Lots of locations, lots of dates!

"The Restart Project aims to tackle the climate emergency by making #electronics work for people, for the planet, and for longer.

"We’re a people-powered social enterprise that believes every product should be repairable, and that repair and reuse should be accessible and affordable for everyone.

"Right now, we live in a throwaway economy. It can be tough to find options for repair locally, and electronics can be needlessly hard to fix. As a result we’re losing repair skills in our communities, throwing more away, and buying more new. It’s building a mountain of e-waste while using ever more of our planet’s limited resources.

"That’s why we make repair easier for everyone.

We help people run repair events in their communities where they teach each other how to fix their broken and slow devices – from tablets to toasters, from iPhones to headphones. We run fixing factories that help people repair their things, build repair directories where people can find help near them and train people in repair skills."

https://therestartproject.org/networks/hampshire/

#RepairCafes #RightToRepair #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair #ReuseRepair
#RepairCafésUK #SolarPunkSunday

#Ireland - The rise of repair cafes: ‘It’s not sustainable to keep buying new stuff’
A resurgent repair culture has a bottom-up energy, but change is also coming from the top, with the EU’s Right to Repair Directive

by Sylvia Thompson
Mon Jan 20 2025 - 05:00

"At repair cafes across the island of Ireland, volunteers fix small pieces of furniture, household electrical appliances and clothing at community venues for free. This movement, which started about 10 years ago – but stalled during the Covid-19 pandemic – is gathering pace again as a kickback against the perils of #overconsumption and as a response to #environmental and cost-of-living crises.

"Tomorrow afternoon, in an industrial unit in #Dublin12, a repair cafe will take place, a community event in which a group of volunteer fixers will repair everything from broken toasters, kettles, coffee machines and air fryers to garments needing new zips or buttons.

"The #DublinMakerRepairCafe in Unit 2B, Motor City, Kylemore Road, #Dublin 12, is one of a number of repair cafe gatherings held throughout the island. Volunteer #fixers also show up for repair events organised in "#CommunityCentres, #libraries and third-level colleges.

" 'I’d do a repair cafe every weekend if I had enough volunteers. I can’t meet the demand from libraries, county councils and community groups,' says Jeffrey Roe, a software and hardware engineer who also runs Tog Hackerspace, which hosts the D12 repair cafes four times a year.

"He says there are three types of people who turn up with broken items to be repaired for free at these community events.

" 'There are the environmentally conscious people who want to get things fixed rather than consume more valuable resources by purchasing new things,' says Roe. 'There are people who want things fixed for sentimental reasons – say a food mixer their mother used or a toy they played with that they want to give to their children. And then, there are the cost-conscious people who find the cost of getting something new too high.' "

Read more:
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/2025/01/18/the-rise-of-repair-cafes-its-not-sustainable-to-keep-buying-new-stuff/

#RepairCafes #RightToRepair #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair #ReuseRepair
#RepairCafésIreland #SolarPunkSunday

HT @WansteadClimateAction (and welcome to the Fediverse!)

"Anyone in #Wanstead #London #LondonE11 #Redbridge please follow and come to our events.

Here's a #RepairCafe coming up Saturday 12th April with help from @restartproject Bring your faulty stuff."

https://kolektiva.social/@WansteadClimateAction@greennet.social/114264249631956492
#SolarPunkSunday #SolarPunk #RepairCafesUK #RepairCafesLondon #RightToRepair #RepairCafes #SolarPunk #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair

This #KansasCity nonprofit will help you fix your lamp so it doesn’t end up in a landfill

KCUR | By Brandon Azim
Published March 26, 2025

"This is one of a dozen Repair Cafes held over the last year. The fix-it sessions are sponsored by Re.Use.Full, a Kansas City nonprofit that is dedicated to raising awareness about sustainability, and a smarter approach to waste disposal, as landfills reach their maximum capacity."

Read more:
https://www.kcur.org/news/2025-03-26/re-use-full-kansas-city-nonprofit-repair-shops
#RepairCafesKS #SolarPunkSunday #RightToRepair #RepairCafes #SolarPunk #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair

#RepairCafe offers free fixes for broken items to help limit #environmental waste

by Nadja Woods, April 5, 2025

“I really like doing this, and for the planet, we don’t have to waste more resources trying to put something else new into the market. We already have great things, so there’s a multitude of reasons why I do this,” said Espinoza.

https://www.mynbc5.com/article/repair-cafe-fixes-broken-items-limit-environmental-waste/64394795
#SolarPunkSunday #RightToRepair #RepairCafesIN #RepairCafe #SolarPunk #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair

#Canada - #RepairCafé #Pierrefonds serves up new life for broken goods

April 5, 2025

"On the first Saturday of every month, Repair Café Pierrefonds takes place at the public library. Volunteers help repair damaged items brought in by residents, while also teaching them how to do it themselves."

https://montreal.citynews.ca/2025/04/05/repair-cafe-pierrefonds/
#RepairCafesMontreal #SolarPunkSunday #RightToRepair #RepairCafes #SolarPunk #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair

#Canada - How a #ScarboroughOntario couple is building community, one repair at a time

by Jessica Patterson
Published March 28, 2025

"Once a month, volunteers gather in a Scarborough, Ont., community centre to fix broken appliances, bicycles, housewares and computers and mend torn clothing – all for free. The Mid-Scarborough Hub Repair Café was launched 18 months ago by Krissan Veerasingam and Fizza Khalid, a couple on a mission to make Scarborough a kinder, greener place.

They both have day jobs – Mr. Veerasingam is a software developer, Ms. Khalid is a health and safety adviser – but volunteering is a big part of their lives. They founded the Scarborough Environmental Association (SEA), a non-profit organization that hosts events like pollinator plant giveaways, clothing swaps, sewing workshops and park clean-ups. The Repair Café is a key SEA initiative, focused on supporting low-income and historically disenfranchised communities. (Repair Cafés originated in Amsterdam in 2009 and there are now more than 3500 of them around the world.)"

Read more:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/globe-wealth/article-how-a-scarborough-couple-is-building-community-one-repair-at-a-time/

Link to #Ontario #RepairCafes:
https://repaircafetoronto.ca/upcoming-events/
#SolarPunkSunday #RepairCafesONT #RightToRepair #RepairCafe #SolarPunk #BuildingCommunity #ReduceReuseRepair

HT @AgroecologyMap

Northey Street City Farm in #BrisbaneAustralia

"We consider the vital connection to the elements of nature to be integral to learning and offer practical skills that can be utilised every day in your own garden space or working environment. Being based in the Magical #Bundjalung Country - the Northern Rivers 'Rainbow Region' of Northern #NewSouthWales, Australia, 'Growing Roots' offers a huge range of functional and cutting edge experimental #permaculture systems for students to explore. From the intensive, highly productive market gardens of ‘The Farm’ at Byron Bay through to Rural #FoodForests, #Agroforestry Systems, #BushTukka Gardens and the Great Wilderness of our Subtropical and Cool Temperate Rainforests, the teachings of nature - and humans creative dance within it - are vast and profound. We utilise the following 12 principles of Permaculture."

Learn more:
https://agroecologymap.org/l/northey-street-city-farm-in-brisbane
#AgroEcology #sustainability #regenerativeagriculture #FoodSecurity #Permakulture #AgroForestry #BushTucker #BuildingCommunity #SolarPunkSunday