Sidmouth Repair Café's first project > ‘The Story of the Bench’

The Sidmouth Repair Café met up for the first time on Saturday - and went really well:
Futures Forum: Sidmouth Repair Café >>> Saturday 29th September >>> 10am - 2pm

But the very first project was to put together a bench:
Futures Forum: Sidmouth Repair Café's first project > a bus stop bench
Futures Forum: Sidmouth Repair Café's first project > reports

And here it is - at the bus stop in Woolbrook:

With some comment from the Repair Café's chair, Angie Carney:

Community is a wonderful thing when people and organisations work together well, and this has been beautifully evident in ‘The Story of the Bench’!

We often meet for a cuppa at Woolbrook Tea Room, but one of our Monday Church friends has trouble using the nearest bus stop as it doesn’t have a bench and she has trouble standing for long.

I investigated getting a bench installed, and after arriving at several dead ends, found Tim at East Devon District Council who said he could provide us with two broken benches that we could use to make one good one.

This fits brilliantly with our plans to start a Repair Café in Sidmouth, so I took the idea to the organising team, and Dave said he’d see if carpenter and prospective Repair Café fixer, Alan, would do it for us. He has done a fantastic job in making a really good strong bench.

We then had conversations about how to paint it and, inspired by colourful benches in Exmouth, Dave suggested painting it in Repair Café colours of blue and orange.

The Youth Centre let us use their space to paint the bench, and Chris at local Builders Merchant, Bradfords, supplied all the resources we needed to get it looking bright and cheery.

After fitting a plaque acknowledging all the different sponsorship, the bench was put in place this morning… and very lovely it looks too! As we stopped to admire it, I met—and had a significant conversation with—a local man who is living with considerable sadness.

Together, a community can bring new hope, transformation, healing and connection.

And here is Angie, together with Barry the fixer and Tim of Streetscene:

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