Hannah Vinyard watched the wind blowing outside the Bob Oke Long Lake Community building with trepidation.

“We may as well get started this morning with our safety plan, and talk about that,” said Vinyard, a waste reduction and recycling program analyst who organized and led the Fix-it Fair for the Kitsap County Public Works Solid Waste Division Dec. 14. “Our evacuation route is out this back door, and right next to it is one of several fire extinguishers throughout the building.”

The power was out at the community center, and around the area, making the lighting dim, electrical repairs impossible and changing Vinyard’s normal introduction into more of a warning about keeping safe. It was not an ideal beginning to the fair where volunteers come to help community members repair household items that they don’t want to throw away. But perseverance won the day, and a can-do attitude allowed attendees to get the most of the help they sought.

The Fix-it Fair was one of three held this year in Poulsbo, Kingston and Saturday in Port Orchard. “It’s hard to do a lot of this without power, because a lot of the volunteers’ tools require power,” Vinyard said. “But a lot of the fix-it movement, and events like these, is being resilient, and so even though we don’t have power, we have a lot of services here.”

A knife sharpener worked out of his van and provided his own power, and several volunteer fixers had power converters in their vehicles and were able to work outside to get repairs done.

Vinyard said that the first Fix-it Fair took place in Indianola in 2018. “We immediately started thinking about how we could support more repair activities in Kitsap County,” she said.

Community members are invited to bring no more than two items that they’d like to repair. “One of our main goals is waste reduction and promoting repair and reuse,” Vinyard said. “Our Fix-it Fairs are meant to inspire community members to try to repair their items before throwing it out and inevitably landing in the landfill.”

Joey Antworth was setting up at his table. “I like tinkering with things, and it’s just a nice way to help out,” Antworth said. “Broken things always teach you new things, and here you get a lot of experience.”

Antworth said he’s just a beginning tinkerer, though he does have an engineering degree, and works as a privacy program manager at Microsoft. The retired Navy submarine nuclear engineer said that he has the technical knowledge, but he likes getting hands-on experience with household items.

Merlaine Cook was Antworth’s first customer, and she brought a combination turntable, CD, DVD and cassette player that was sent to her from family in Hawaii. “When it got here, the turntable didn’t work,” she said. Cook’s daughter listens to vinyl records these days, and she wanted to get the turntable operable. “He thought it might be the belt that’s in there, and sure enough…” she said as Antworth was in the process of repairing the turntable belt.

Sean Farvolin said he became a fixer by watching YouTube videos, and tearing apart appliances and electronic items ever since he was a kid. Margaret Williams brought him a Mr. Coffee coffee maker that needed fixing.

“I bought it broken, and I know how these pieces come off,” Williams said. “And he’s telling me that if we had power, he could solder it back together.”

Farvolin knew that the thermostat wasn’t working, but without power he was sure he couldn’t do much until Williams told him she had a power converter in her car. She and Farvolin went outside, and he soldered the pieces back together.

Vinyard said the county is planning more of the fairs into 2025. “Our long-term goal for the program is to help a nonprofit take the lead over these events, and show that repair is needed and a viable option for residents in Kitsap County,” she said.