Volunteers of Shrewsbury Repair Café in the UK were recently honoured in a very special way: Queen Camilla stopped by! Below is a wonderful report of the visit. Pete Martin, clock repairer at Shrewsbury Repair Café, wrote it:
Her Majesty Queen Camilla visits Repair Café
On Wednesday 27th March 2024 Her Majesty Queen Camilla made a royal visit to Shrewsbury, England. On her first royal visit to the town, she met members of the public in the town centre before meeting some local charities at the recently restored Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings Building, the world’s first iron framed building.
Shrewsbury Repair Café, which has been regularly meeting in the town since 2017, was delighted and honoured to be invited to be part of this prestigious event.
Shrewsbury Repair Café set up a Repair Café alongside the other charities present, repairing items donated by members of the public. Sadly, due to security and space constraints, the public could not attend this Repair Café, but it was a wonderful opportunity to showcase to Her Majesty The Queen typical items that are repaired each month and the skill and dedication of all the volunteers present. Items being repaired included an electric kettle, a sound equalizing board, an old but treasured teddy bear, a silver jewellery box, a costume jewellery necklace, a small wooden cabinet plus other small items.
The Queen showed a real interest in all aspects of the Repair Café
On arriving at the Shrewsbury Repair Café, Her Majesty The Queen was greeted and welcomed by Liz Evans, coordinator of the Repair Café, and Pete Martin, a volunteer repairer. Her Majesty Queen Camilla was introduced to each volunteer, who explained the items that were being repaired and how they were repairing them. She took great interest in every object being repaired and noted that each item had been saved from being discarded and would continue to be used. HM The Queen showed a real interest in all aspects of the Repair Café, the ethos by which it works and the valued role of all the volunteers.
For many years, His Majesty King Charles III and Queen Camilla have held a passion for the environment, often blazing a trail in highlighting issues which are now so prominent in all our societies. Equally, they have actively supported the preservation of traditional skills and crafts that they see slowly dying out as technology advances. We were honoured and delighted to showcase not only the Shrewsbury Repair Café to Her Majesty Queen Camilla but also the wider Repair Café movement and we hope this has highlighted the incredible work that many thousands of volunteers do worldwide each day.
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