LA Fixit Clinic helps with household repairs, for free
With a screw and a stitch, what could have been trash is brought back to life at the LA Fixit Clinic, where volunteers put their skills to good use by fixing things.
The L.A. County Public Library holds a clinic one Saturday a month, each time in a different community, but the needs are the same.
Volunteers steal the show at the clinics, tending to toasters, steamers, fans, computers, and even clothing. It's tinkerers like Chip Clampitt, who is a mechanical engineer by trade and clock crusader for fun, that fix the stuff so it works again. "I have stuff that breaks and I'm cheap and don't want to pay for new ones," Clampitt said.
Dozens waited in line at the last Fixit event at the Norwalk Library. Alicia Ellsworth drove from Long Beach for help with her 30-year-old lamp that went dark. "I plugged it in and blew my fuse and got scared, so I wanted to bring it to a place that knows electricity and can fix it for me," she said.
Laura Anthony is the program coordinator. She says they are addressing a need that is missing in today's communities.
"I think everybody has something in their house they want to get fixed and they don't know what to do with," Anthony said.
She pointed out that repair shops are a thing of the past. "So I say the biggest demographic is our seniors. I call them the 'remember when' generation because they remember when repair was easy and accessible in their community. You can't find them now," Anthony said.
In a disposable world of quick convenience, it also helps reduce landfill waste. "You don't throw things away," Rose Johnson of West Covina said. "I bought two 100-year-old lamps, and I reworked them with the help of the gentleman."
Ellsworth got her lamp fixed, which gave her a sense of accomplishment by bringing something back to life and helping save a small part of the environment.
