South Surrey Repair Café celebrates 2 milestones at Earth Day event
Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, April 28, 2026
A beloved community initiative in Crescent Beach not only marked a milestone but just completed their 20th Café.
Held on April 19 at Alex House, the event brought together volunteers, fixers and curious community members for an afternoon focused on sustainability, education and connection.
The milestone item – a vintage 1950s toaster – drew plenty of attention from café guests and repair café volunteers.
“It had no levers, and when you placed toast in it, it slowly lowered,” a repair café organizer, Gillian Roberts said. “When the toast was ready, it slowly rose back up.”
The toaster is the 1,000th item repaired by the café and it belonged to first-time attendee Debra.
Roberts shared that the very thrilled customer even received a gift certificate for bringing in the 1,000th item.
This Earth Day event also featured a nearby “Frock Swap” hosted by the White Rock South Surrey Climate Corps, giving attendees another way to participate in sustainable practices by trading gently used clothing.
The Repair Café in South Surrey was first launched on Earth Day in 2019. It is part of a global movement aimed at reducing waste and encouraging people to rethink how they use and dispose of everyday items.
Roberts explained that the initiative was inspired by similar cafés around the world, with thousands now operating internationally.
“We not only have people bringing their items to fix, but they have to stay with the item and watch it be fixed,” said Roberts, noting that customers have the option to let the volunteers fix the item or learn how to fix it themselves.
Roberts says fixing broken items is important but education is at the core of what they do.
“A big part of the Repair Café is helping people understand the nature of what they’ve brought in,” she explained.
Roberts notes that sometimes things are built in such a way that they can’t be taken apart without being destroyed, which is why she strongly believes in the growing movement of advocating towards products being designed with repairability in mind.
“In many countries, people still fix things, but in Canada, not so much,” Roberts said. “People have been taught to just throw things away, but often they can be fixed.”
Roberts says that the Repair Café continues to grow, with a diverse group of volunteers ranging from teenagers to seniors, each bringing unique skills and experiences.
Beyond repairs, Roberts emphasized the strong sense of community the Café fosters.
“There’s a lot of reasons to come,” she said. “You can meet your neighbours, you can volunteer or donate to help us keep going, as well as bring your stuff to be fixed.”
Roberts adds that it can be expensive to get items fixed elsewhere and it can take time to be repaired or sometimes they cannot be mended.
“If you can do it yourself and invest your time, then you save yourself some money and some heartache.”
Roberts also states that many volunteers are drawn in simply by seeing the excitement from attendees and volunteers.
“The whole thing is very exciting. I go to the Café and people often want to volunteer because they see the excitement on the day,” shared Roberts.
With this milestone now in the books, Repair Café organizers hope to continue their efforts and hit many more milestones along the way.
Learn more about the South Surrey White Rock Repair Café at www.repaircafe.org