WNC Repair Cafe

2025 Year of Repairs

Last year WNC Repair Cafe volunteers met 25 times at 14 different locations across 4 counties, helping 636 people fix 838 items with an 87% success rate. We strengthened local community connections at Buncombe County Libraries, Haywood Community College and the Asheville Tool Library, while reaching new communities in Madison and Transylvania counties and beyond. WNC Repair Cafe volunteers helped design semester-long repair skills education programs, reaching youth in Haywood County as young as 2nd grade.

Hands-on learning in Haywood County

WNC Repair Cafe organizers spoke at conferences, sat on community repair panels, and interviewed with national media outlets. Our friends in the Repair Cafe NC network expanded their offerings across the state, organizing impressive events in the Triangle, Winston-Salem, Charlotte, and Henderson and Transylvania counties. Globally, there are now more than 3,800 registered 'repair cafes' - nearly twice as many as when WNC Repair Cafe volunteers met for the first time in 2018.

Mock Repair Cafe at the 2025 Carolina Farm Stewardship Conference

It's clear we are experiencing a cultural shift in the way people experience - and take full ownership of - the material objects that surround their everyday life. 60% of visitors to 2025 WNC Repair Cafe events noted they were motivated by sustainability. 51% were there to save money and 38% came to learn repair skills. Even more were motivated by a sense of building stronger communities. Many visitors simply didn't have anywhere else to go for repairs.

More hands-on learning

Motivated by community support, we are sustaining the momentum with an ambitious schedule in 2026. We're committed to strengthening existing connections in Buncombe and Haywood Counties, while reaching new communities with a rotation of four events at the Weaverville Community Center, and a series of mobile pop-ups in counties further north.

Follow this link for a complete Google Calendar of 2026 events.

Consider downloading and printing our 2026 Calendar and sharing physical copies within your community.

For further announcements, follow us on Social Media, or send an email to WNCRepairCafe@gmail.com to join our mailing list.

2026 Schedule Coming Soon!

Hi Friends of WNC Repair Cafe!

A Repair Cafe is a place where you’ll find volunteers with tools and supplies, available to fix broken objects while offering instruction hands-on experience in the art of repair. Repair Cafes are free programs, where you are encouraged to bring in your broken appliance, stuck zipper, rusty tools, old bicycle, dull pruning shears – whatever you can imagine – and work with volunteers to make the necessary repairs to keep it running.

Repair Cafes around the world help build resilient communities by:

Helping a neighbor: Restoring valuable material items at no cost of labor.

Sharing skills: Teaching repair skills and encouraging hands-on learning

Sharing ideas: Sharing insight and appreciation of how things made, repaired, and disposed of.

Diverting resources from the landfill: Engaging in practical action on waste reduction.

Empowering our community with the skills and resources to prosper in a sustainable economy.

WNC Repair Cafe started in Mills River in 2018, and following the pandemic, expanded to various communities in Buncombe and Haywood Counties. For 2026, we're proud to announce we are including regular events in Weaverville, as well as expanded pop-up workshops in Madison and Yancey Counties, along with continued partnerships with Henderson County Repair Cafes. Repair Cafes are expanding rapidly across North Carolina and the United States. We are proud to be a part of this tradition of helping neighbors, thriftiness, good conversation, and passing down skills to future generations.

2018 WNC Repair Cafe Volunteers in Mills River NC

Along with our expansion in 2026, we'll be focusing on improving the experience for visitors and volunteers alike. For the next two months, WNC Repair Cafe is building an advisory team to help organize and improve a variety of metrics, including successful repair rate, visitor educational experience and volunteer satisfaction. This is a lot of work, so please be patient as we head in 2026! We'll be releasing our schedule shortly after the new year. For now, you can expect an ambitious schedule of over 24 workshops, and in-person repair workshops to resume in February 2026.

2024 WNC Repair Cafe Volunteers in Asheville

2025 WNC Repair Cafe Volunteer Sewing Crew

interesting in Helping? There are many ways you can help:

Join our Mailing list and be the first to receive notices of new events by sending an Email to WNCRepairCafe@gmail.com

Are you a skilled fixer? We need your help!

Do you have other skills you are excited to offer? Can you provide snacks? Help with fundraising, media, or data management? We need your help too!

Are you in Weaverville? Help us build our volunteer base for 2026 workshops

2025 Schedule

2025 is going to be a big year of recovery for Western North Carolina and community repair will be as important as ever. We're pleased to announce a robust schedule of events with our community partners at Buncombe County Public Libraries, Asheville Tool Library and Haywood Community College, while also leaving room for Pop-up repair events at the Organic Growers School spring conference, Asheville Maker's Faire. Stay tuned as we'll be adding MORE pop-up events in early spring and summer, along with a special FREE high-school repair education program taking place in Haywood County this spring.

Sewing and Mending Repairs include: all things that can be fixed with thread, including hand stitching and those that require sewing machines and sergers. Zipper repairs and boot/shoe glue repairs will be offered as well. Sorry, no sewing machine repairs are offered here.

House Hold Repairs include: all small home appliances, tools, heirlooms, small engines, furniture, sewing machines and almost anything else you can imagine. "If it comes from your house and if fits in your car, we'll fix it for free." Sewing repairs are typically not offered here, but may be offered in the future. Additionally, we reserve the right to limit repairs for concerns of safety, for example, CRT TVs, firearms, automobile repairs are not offered.

Please email WNCRepairCafe@gmail.com for questions and volunteer opportunities.

Post-Helene 2024 Schedule Update

October was a huge month for all of us in Western Carolina.

Back in 2018, when we first started, our press releases were already including language like "building resilient communities." Last month we finally saw what those words actually mean, and now, more so than ever I'm incredibly honored to be a part of this community we've built.

Huge thanks as always to the many volunteers that have helped in the past, and especially to those that came out in October to one of our many disaster relief repair pop-ups. In the three weeks following Helene, the course of 10 pop-up repair events, our volunteers looked at over 600 Chainsaws and at least 50 generators, all while boasting a nearly 90% success rate! Because of volunteer help, and the foundation we've laid over the past 6 years, we are now in a position to literally define how community repair groups CAN be mobilized quickly to respond to natural disasters in their communities.

Communication was a little hectic for a while there! Sorry for all the confusion coming from me about new dates, and cancelled events, etc. Here is an updated calendar to clear up any confusion about the remaining schedule for 2024:

Reaching New Communities in Haywood County

WNC Repair Cafe is expanding further west into Haywood County - We're very grateful for our friends at Haywood Community College and First United Methodist Church for welcoming us into this already resilient and tight-knit community. Although the WNC Repair Cafe leadership will remain constant, this is almost like starting a new program entirely from scratch; we're actively recruiting local volunteers in the area, so please help us spread the word, and we're looking forward to meeting everyone in April!

Stitching Stuffies

We're very excited to announce these special children's repair workshops, hosted by Buncombe Co. libraries and made possible with a grant from Culture of Repair!

We believe that sewing is a safe and accessible repair skill that children can learn with help from experienced adults, and we believe that teaching a child to repair their stuffed animals is a great opportunity to foster a culture of repair starting at a very young age.

These workshops are about more than just teaching skills. Focusing on tactile, accessible, hands-on skills provides an opportunity to introduce concepts of environmental sustainability that feel concrete, and immediate, as opposed to solely abstract learning. Children have an intimate connection with their stuffed animals, and through repairing their stuffed animals, which they can then take home, children will have a daily reminder of their ability to improve their material world; a potential direct connection to positive environmental outcomes and their improved self-esteem.

We'll begin the workshop with a short lesson that puts the act of repair in the context of environmental and economic sustainability. Following the lesson, one of our skilled repair coaches will demonstrate a simple overhand stitch, and then we'll break into small groups where children can learn to repair their own ripped or town stuffed animals. Each small group of children will have it's own skilled repair coach to guide children through their own repairs. All children will go home with a stuffed animal that they have successfully repaired on their own.

Attendance is limited to 20 children for each day. Sign up following the links below:

February 22 from 4:30 to 6:00, Pack Memorial Library

March 6 from 4:30 to 6:00, West Asheville Public Library

March 9 from 10:30-12:00, Pack Memorial Library

March 23 from 12:30-2:00, West Asheville Public Library

Do you have stuffed animals you'd like to donate to the program? Drop off locations are at the Pack Library children's room and the West Asheville Library. Do you have a large lot you'd like to donate? Email Dan at WNCRepairCafe@gmail.com and we can arrange a pickup.

2024 WNC Repair Cafe Schedule

2023 was a big year for Community Repair in western North Carolina:

WNC Repair Cafe organized over a dozen repair events hosted by the Asheville Tool Library and Buncombe County libraries.
With help from our friends at Repair Cafe NC, WNC Repair Cafe joined the Triangle Repair Network and is now a registered 501-c3 non-profit in the state of North Carolina!
We have been awarded our first grant! (Much more on this later)
We expanded our repair events to reach Hendersonville, while working to create a template that makes it easier to maintain repair cafes under new leadership in other NC communities.

We're starting off 2024 with an expanded schedule, reaching more WNC communities:

We'll return to the Asheville Tool Library for SIX general repair events, on bimonthly intervals, each on the first Thursday of that month. All events are from 5:00-8:00 PM. At these events, we'll be fixing nearly anything you might find in your house: small appliances, lamps and other electrical items, tools, furniture, heirlooms, some electronics, small engines, bicycles, and more.

Buncombe county libraries will continue to host mending events. Here, we'll fix anything that can be fixed with thread. Our 2024 expanded mending event schedule is more irregular.

All Buncombe County workshop dates are listed here:

please feel free to share, print and post where it can be seen!

We'll be adding more dates and special events as move into 2024. Always check our events page for the most updated information, and as always, send an email to WNCRepairCafe@gmail.com if you have any questions.

With Expanded Leadership, Repair Cafe Returns to Hendersonville

Those who have followed WNC Repair Cafe for a long time will know that we started in 2018 in the workshop of a working farm on the north edge of Henderson County. Since the pandemic, and subsequent closing of that farm, we've found a wonderful home at the Asheville Tool Library and Buncombe County libraries. Still, many of our visitors and volunteers alike travel from Henderson County. Others have mentioned the drive is simply too far, especially for those who have difficulty driving at night.

Given these circumstances, we are especially grateful for the Blue Ridge Community College Library and the efforts of local organizer Ann Swift for bringing WNC Repair Cafe back to Henderson County. We'll start with sewing and mending for our first event, with a plan to expand into full service Repair Cafes for 2024. This first event is only week away, but there has already been great enthusiasm and support from a suite of talented local volunteers. This is all very exciting for us!

Our friends at Repair Cafe NC are making similar moves to expand access to Repair Cafes across the North Carolina piedmont. To accomplish this, lead organizer Don Fick, is using a similar tactic: relying on local leadership to organize volunteers, coordinate with local venues and promote events.

Are you interested in becoming a local Repair Cafe organizer under the North Carolina based Repair Cafe network? Send us an email and we'll start a conversation!

Building a Community of Repair

Drawing from increasingly wider network, WNC Repair Cafe events at the Asheville Tool Library have been steadily building momentum in 2023. Having completed four expanded repair cafe events so far in 2023, our committed volunteers have come to expect the unexpected. We see our fair share of lamps, tools, appliances and small engines, but we're also taking on the odd jobs: a 3rd generation heirloom umbrella, a stained glass lampshade, even components of pinball machines!


Volunteer Chris helps diagnose and repair the plunger switch from a fishing-themed pinball machine.

A simple fix on a priceless family heirloom

Our special sewing and mending events are doing well too, and with the support of Buncombe County libraries we're continuing to make free sewing and mending repairs available to all. Every job represents a special new challenge, and here too, we're fixing more than clothes. WNC Repair Cafe volunteers are stitching stuffed animals, mending outdoor gear and even a patching a beekeeper's suit! Stay tuned to as we'll be expanding on our schedule of sewing and mending events later this fall.

Discussing visible mending techniques at Pack Memorial Library

Deborah was thankful to have help with mending her beekeeping gear

2023 repair events have been eclectic and fun, but upon parsing the data, a common theme has been revealed: WNC Repair Cafe is building a community with the confidence to take on repairs of their own.

Guests are visiting our repair events for a variety of reasons:

28% want to learn the skills necessary to repair
26% want to support sustainability initiatives
17% want to save money
14% don't know where else to go for repair
7% really don't want to throw their items in the landfill
5% show up for the community of like-minded individuals
3% just really love fixing things.

Of course there's overlap here in our visitor's motivations. Two things stick out to me: most people want to learn repair, and many people don't know where else to go. Repair cafes are providing a space for these people to meet each other and share their mutual skills and one thing has been resoundingly clear: guests are gaining the skills necessary for repair. Our data for 2023 events shows that 65% of those who filled out our exit surveys responded they are more confident to take on repairs on their own.

Announcing Repair Events for 2023

Fall of 2022 was a nice return to well-attended, scheduled repair events. Momentum has been steadily building since the Covid-19 pandemic thanks in large part to our new hosts and collaborating partners: Buncombe County libraries and the Asheville Tool Library. Regularly scheduled events have been requested by many of our visitors and it stands to reason that momentum will continue to build throughout 2023. That said, I'm pleased to share that we have TEN repair events now scheduled for 2023.

The Asheville Tool library will be hosting a total of SIX general repair events on a bimonthly schedule.

The Leicester Public Library and West Asheville Public Library, respectively, will alternate hosting FOUR Sewing and Mending repair events on a quarterly basis.

All dates are listed on our Events page.

We recognize it's important for repair coaching to be available to new communities. 10 Events in a single year is more than we've ever done - but we're still open for more. Please feel free to reach out if you're an event planner, non-profit, community organizer or government official and you have ideas about how WNC Repair Cafe can participate at your event.

Thanks WNC for all your support, We're looking forward to a big year!

Upcoming Repair Events for December

Bring us your broken stuff!

WNC Repair Cafe is settling down in the Asheville area for two more repair events in December.

We're back for another Sewing and Mending event on December 6, this time at the Leicester library at 1561 Alexander Rd in Leicester, NC. We've got a great, enthusiastic group of skilled sewing volunteers ready to help guide you through sewing repairs of all kinds. We'll also be collecting winter clothes for donation via AMCHC winter clothes drive.

The following week, on Tuesday, December 13, we're back for another general repair event at the Asheville Tool Library at 80 Cowan Cove Rd in Asheville. Here too, we've got a great group of volunteers with a very wide range of skills. We're very excited about this collaboration!

Both events are from 5:00 to 8:00. More info can be found here.

Marc gluing up a wooden paddle for a visitor at the first Tool Library repair event.

Also, special thanks to Chris Link and the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy for hosting the small engine maintenance workshop and repair event. Over 20 people attended the workshop and learned about troubleshooting, tune up and winterizing small engine equipment. Later, visitors stuck around for hands-on repair of chainsaws, string trimmers, lawnmowers and even a portable generator. The community farm was a wonderful setting for this kind of event and we look forward to more of these kinds of collaborations in the future!

Chris demonstrating his method for diagnosing a chainsaw with starting trouble.

Small Engine Intensive and Repair Event at SAHC Farm

On the evening of Tuesday October 25, we will be at SAHC Community Farm for a special two-part repair event. Starting at 5:00, SAHC Farm manager and repair cafe volunteer Chris Link will lead a short small engine diagnostic, repair and maintenance demonstration, followed at 6:00 by a public repair event.

SAHC Farm Manager Chris Link is captured here from a live demonstration at Living Web Farms. This is a great opportunity to learn firsthand basic troubleshooting, repair and maintenance of small engines.

The Southern Appalachian Highland Conservancy Community Farm is an "educational site and working farm; a continually evolving home for conservation projects and agricultural production." This farm is an especially beautiful location, and we are very blessed to have these community partners that are as passionate as we are about sustainability and self-sufficiency!

We plan offer all kinds of repairs here - however we'll be especially well-equipped to hand small engines and the other farm/garden related jobs like sharpening, handle replacements, power tool repair and more of the repairs we haven't been able to do since our pre-covid events.

Registration is encouraged. Register here: https://appalachian.org/event/small-engine-maintenance-and-repair-cafe/

Basic supplies will be provided. However, replacement parts will not be available. Participants are encouraged to reach out via email at least one week in advance - if necessary, we may be able to help you with ordering replacement parts.

Volunteering at WNC Repair Cafe

Repair Cafes are events where you’ll find volunteers with tools and supplies, available to fix broken household objects while offering instruction in the form of hands on help.

Volunteers at WNC Repair Cafe share a common concern for:

Helping a neighbor: Restoring valuable material items at no cost of labor.

Sharing skills: Teaching repair skills and encouraging hands-on learning

Sharing ideas: Sharing insight and appreciation of how things made, repaired, and disposed of.

Diverting resources from the landfill: Engaging in practical action on waste reduction.

Building resilient communities: Empowering our community with the skills and resources to prosper in a sustainable economy.

How does it work?

Most volunteers offer some specialized expertise such as bicycle repair, electronics, appliances, furniture, sewing, small engines, etc. Some volunteers just have a generalized knowledge of how things work and can manage many repairs. No volunteer knows everything...and that's OK. Repairs are often a collaborative process, where multiple volunteers may team up to take on challenging jobs.

Part of what makes repair events exciting is that we don't always know what we're going to repair that night. We keep a stock of common supplies (glues, cleaners, batteries, lamp sockets, etc) and we do have an array of specialty tools on hand. It's not required, but it is recommended that volunteers bring their own common tools.

Visitors will sign a waiver and check in their broken items at the front desk when they arrive. Usually the organizer will match a particular repair job to the appropriate volunteer. As the event gets busier, the organizer will keep a list of repair jobs in order of who was first in line. When the volunteer becomes available and ready for the next repair they can then pick from the list which job they're most comfortable with. We do have some slow nights and some busy nights, however, on average a volunteer may take on 3 or 4 repairs in a single night.

Sometimes items can't be fully repaired...that's OK too. Best practice is to first collaborate with the organizer or another volunteer to see if they have a different approach. If spare parts are needed, the organizer can usually help locate a vendor. More often than necessary, items are not designed to be repaired at all and there is no safe or reliable way to do so. Visitors know that there is no guarantee of successful repair. Based on our prior events, we typically have an 80% successful repair rate.

Education is central to our mission. We think it's important that we rethink our consumption-driven economy, and as a volunteer, one way to approach this is helping to demystify the repair process. Even when a successful repair of a particular item is not possible, we want to give visitors the confidence to consider repair when something else in their house needs fixing.

Volunteers are Needed!

A reasonable ratio of volunteers to participants is essential to a successful night. If you have a
specific skill set or a general enthusiasm for sharing DIY knowledge, then please, we need your help! Volunteers of all skill levels are greatly appreciated.

If you're interested, please let us know via email at WNCRepairCafe@gmail.com or call (828) 808-6417

West Asheville Library Sewing Event

Thanks to all who attended our inaugural sewing repair night at the West Asheville library! Special thanks to our returning volunteers Gail and Anita, along with new volunteers Lucy and Lindsay. Very special thanks to the managing librarian Sherry, for whom without her persistence this would not have been possible.

This event had a relaxed feel, with a focus on hands-on education. Sewing repairs are unique in that with access to the right tools and education, nearly everyone really can do it. Last night our volunteers took this to heart, guiding kids and adults alike through process of stitching stuffed animals, mending seams, threading machines, hemming pants, replacing worn-out elastic waistbands, sewing buttons, patching holes and attaching straps.

Overall four volunteers helped fifteen adults and a gaggle of kids with an estimated 25 items. We're thankful for this well-lit, clean, accessible space and we're looking forward to offering more sewing repair events in Asheville soon. In the meantime, check out some photos from the September 20, 2022 event below:

Coming soon to the new Asheville Tool Library location

WNC Repair Cafe will host a repair event on the evening of Tuesday October 11 at the NEW Asheville Tool Library location at Smith Mill works in Asheville. This is an especially exciting collaboration that we hope to nurture for many future events - Suffice to say we are very grateful we have made this connection!

WNC Repair Cafe co-founder and experienced toaster-oven repairman Christian Nolan is also a longtime volunteer with the Asheville Tool Library

"The Asheville Tool Library is a volunteer-powered, membership-based nonprofit that shares its tools and resources and offers educational opportunities to the Community of Western North Carolina."

The Asheville Tool Library has been operating for several years in the south slope area of downtown Asheville. Here, they've prospered with many dedicated volunteers and a thriving community of members. They've also outgrown their space. At the end of September, ATL is moving to Smith Mill works, an sustainable agribusiness entrepreneurship hub in west-west Asheville, located at 80 Cowan Cove Rd. With the move comes a larger space to house tools, along with ample parking and a dedicated workshop area - all of the amenities necessary to support a thriving repair cafe.

We're very excited to join ATL here in this new space on October 11, 2022, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. Check out the Events page for updates and please, read the House Rules.

Sewing Repairs at the Library

For three years WNC Repair Cafe has been hosted by our friends at Living Web Farms where our repair events typically cover a very broad range of all types of household repairs. Given the farm setting, our prior events naturally tended towards more farm and garden type jobs - think long-handled tool replacements, small engine tune-up, sharpening - those kind of rough jobs well-suited for calloused hands. Our workshop space was not particularly well-suited for the delicate work of sewing jobs, so it's no surprise that sewing jobs were few and far between. That's a big part of why we're so excited to be offering a special event that focuses exclusively on sewing jobs.

WNC Repair Cafe is teaming up with the West Asheville Public Library on the evening of September 20 to offer free sewing repairs. The public is invited to bring in their worn out and damaged fabric items and work together with volunteers who specialize in all things fabric - from stitching, to mending, attaching buttons, fixing zippers and more.

Thinking about attending? You are encouraged to bring in clothing, but also consider other fabric repairs - worn-out favorite purse, stuffed animal, torn backpack strap, old work gloves, etc. Have questions about your unique repair? Send us an email WNCRepairCafe@gmail.com before arriving.

We'll also be collecting winter clothes for donation via AMCHC community clothing drive. I've been told that larger sizes are especially helpful.

What is a Repair Cafe?

A Repair Cafe is a place where you’ll find volunteers with tools and supplies, available to fix broken objects while offering instruction in the form of hands on help. This is a free program where you are encouraged to bring in your broken appliance, stuck zipper, rusty tools, old bicycle, dull pruning shears – whatever you can imagine – and work with our volunteers to make the necessary repairs to keep it running.

Repair Cafes across the world have helped build resilient communities by offering access to hands on experience in the art of repair. At WNC Repair Cafe we’ll gather volunteers from the area for an evening of:

Helping a neighbor: Restore valuable material items at no cost of labor.
Learning by doing: Gain experience in practical hands-on skills.
Sharing ideas: Gain insight and appreciation of how things made, repaired, and disposed of.
Diverting valuable resources from the landfill: Engage in practical action on waste reduction.
Building resilient communities: Empower our local community with the resources to prosper in a sustainable economy

Repair Cafe in Practice

Repair Cafe Origins:

The first Repair Café was held in October 2009 in Amsterdam, and was so successful that founder Martine Postma continued organizing several Repair Café meetings at different locations in Amsterdam. These caught the attention of more and more people and the media all over the country. By 2010 she had founded the Repair Café Foundation.

Repair Café Foundation aims to a) reintroducing the art of repairing to the modern, local communities; b) retaining and spreading repair knowledge and skills; c) to promote social cohesion by bringing together neighbors from very different backgrounds and motives in a setting of inspiring and accessible meetings.

Fast forward to 2020, where globally there are now over two thousand repair cafes on six continents, notwithstanding similar models operating under different names or as standalone events. At Repair Cafes around the world people are reminded that there is an alternative to a throwaway culture.