CAMERON MARTINEZ

@goanacortes

What do pants, shovels and record players all have in common?

At first glance, not much. Except all three, along with many other items, can be seen at Transition Fidalgo's Fix-It Days pop-up repair cafés.

 

As long as it can fit on a table and it is not beyond repair, the group will try to fix it. While donations are suggested to help keep the program running, the events are free. People even have the option to watch their objects get fixed so they can learn how to fix them in the future. Since the pop-up's creation in the early 2010s, thousands of items have been fixed. Last year, the group fixed 93% of the items given to it, which is 13% above what most other fix-it groups have been able to achieve.

"I think more and more people are becoming aware that there 
are other ways of dealing with things that are broken or torn or
ripped or whatever in their home," said Transition Fidalgo
Education & Outreach Coordinator Katrina White.

White works the information booth at the pop-up events and has

noticed an increase of people asking for services.

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"More and more people are becoming conscious consumers and

wanting to purchase things from companies where they

appreciate their moral standing and all of those kinds of things,"

she said. "I think that will also help people make a choice of ...

(getting) things fixed."

Fix-It Days, however, are only one of the local nonprofit's many

projects it has to make Anacortes a more sustainable city.

"Transition Fidalgo was established in 2006 ... and we were totally

focused on addressing climate change issues and looking at ways

to inform the public about it, because if you turn the clock back,
you'll remember not too much was understood by the public a

bout climate change," said Transition Fidalgo Program Manager

Eric Shen. "So that was our main mission, and we function mainly

by trying to show people different ways of doing things."

The group does not hold any political affiliation; its goal is to focus

solely on its projects. 

 

Currently, along with Fix-It-Days, the organization has an

Anacortes Community Forest Lands monitoring program, a

middle school farming program and a seed sharing program.
The nonprofit has also had programs and seminars that educate

people about energy efficiency, how to fix a bike, how to make

yogurt and much more.

 

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for a self-reliant community has become more apparent.

"All of a sudden the ability to ship food or hard goods just came to a standstill (and) all of a sudden stores were running out of stuff," Shen said about the pandemic. "It's the whole concept of centralized production of food, goods, and this just in time mentality that, 'Oh, you need this. We'll send it to you tomorrow.' Well, that means the day after tomorrow, you're out. And so we anticipate that that's going to continue to be a worsening situation over time, especially as climate change impacts escalate."

Shen illustrated the potential severity of these challenges by speaking about the impact of the major wildfires that affected Southern California in January. 

"You can imagine that what you saw in Los Angeles could be replicated on a grander scale in other parts of the country, and that would totally disrupt transportation," Shen said. "I'm sure the people down in Los Angeles probably are having a real difficult time getting food and basic necessities right now, so the more self-sufficient a community is, the more resilient it is."

While Shen and White admit that the tangible impacts to the

projects do not usually appear immediately, the results of the

group's projects throughout the years are visible.

"You're just informing the public or showing them different ways

to do things, and you just hope that they're going to adopt some

of them and remember what you've said, and so on and so forth,"

Shen said. "But when we started the Skagit Community Solar

program back in 2014, at that point in time, solar was not well

accepted. There were all kinds of incentives and whatnot, but

people just were not adopting it ... When it was all said and done,

we had put in five systems. And I'll say we had over 100 members

across the five systems."

From there, Transition Fidalgo has only continued to expand, with some projects even reaching beyond Anacortes.
The group plans to continue this expansion with more projects, outreach and communication with the public.

For more information on Transition Fidalgo, its projects and upcoming events visit www.transitionfidalgo.org.

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Article Written By: Cameron Martinez.

Cameron Martinez can be reached atcmartinez@goanacortes.com