Share and repair fair - May 9, 2025

Join the Town of Canmore and the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley on Friday, May 9, 2025 from 4pm-9pm at Elevation Place for a fun, educational day promoting a circular economy Canmore.

What is a Share and Repair Fair? This is a FREE community event that promotes circular economy and waste reduction through free repair, share and reuse services, workshops, and presentations.

What will the day look like? 
Join us from 4pm-9pm for a free clothing swap, light snacks, live music, on-site repairs, workshops, a trash pageant, prizes, and more! Explore booths, products and information from 13 local businesses and organizations:

• Fixit Bow Valley (phone repair)

• Fyne Products (selling upcycled clothing)

• Bow Valley Food Alliance

• Elements Patagonia Banff (on-site repairs, off-site repair intake, and selling Storm Care Wash products)

• Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley (free bear spray available)

• Community Cruisers (bicycle repair and maintenance)

• Bow Valley Climate Action Society

• Yarrow Environmental

• Canmore Public Library (Library of Things)

• Kumpfy Shoes and Repair

• REDEAL (selling upcycled clothes and purses)

• Bow Valley Waste Commission

What should I bring? 

• Clothing items that require small repairs. Visit one of our community sewers who can help you sew or patch items. 

• Patagonia products to be repaired or taken in for repairs by Patagonia.

• Shoes that require mending to the Kumpfy Shoes workshop or booth (4pm workshop).

• Phones that require some fixing to Fixit Bow Valley booth. 

• Gently-used clothing items to contribute to the clothing swap. 

• Gently-used denim to donate to Melissa at Fyne.

• A bicycle tube that needs mending or minor bicycle repairs/questions (5:30pm workshop).

• Pants that you would like to turn into shorts (4:30pm workshop). 

• Your curiosity for our awesome line-up of workshops! 

RSVP for free to save your spot and be entered to win a prize!

Free Workshop Schedule

Sign up in advance to save your spot. Drop ins also welcome but first come, first served.

🛠️ 4:00pm – Can I Fix My Shoes? Or Should I Just Accept Defeat? with Kumpfy Shoes

Got a pair of beloved shoes hanging on by a thread (literally)? Before you say your tearful goodbyes, let’s see if we can bring them back to life! We'll cover common shoe catastrophes—floppy soles, wobbly heels, tragic scuffs—and figure out whether they can be saved. Bring a sad pair of shoes, boots (or jacket even) for a quick check-up, and let’s see if a miracle is in your future.
✂️ 4:30pm – Upcycle Pants into Summer-Ready Shorts with Fyne Products

Ready to give your old pants a breezy new life? Join us for this cozy, hands-on (or eyes-on!) workshop where Melissa from Fyne Products will walk you through the art of transforming well-loved pants into stylish shorts — perfect for spring and summer wear.
🧵 Want to cut your own on the spot? Bring a pair of pants and we’ll supply the tools.

👀 Prefer to watch and learn for later? Come hang out, sip something nice, and soak up the know-how.
🚴 5:30pm – How to Patch an Inner Tube with Community Cruisers

Learn how to patch an inner tube. Watch or bring your own! First 20 people to attend, get a free patch kit!
👑 6:00pm – Trash Pageant! starring Ms. Wiebe & her incredible Grade 5s
The Trash Pageant (originally performed and created by Precipice Theatre of Banff, and for which I have permission to adapt) addresses Canmore's waste problem. Sixty percent of what goes into Canmore's garbage is NOT trash! The contestants of the Trash Pageant explain how they can be recycled, repurposed, reused, and/or composted.
🥑6:30pm - Preserve, Revive & Regenerate: Rethinking Your Grocery List with the Bow Valley Food Alliance
Join the Bow Valley Food Alliance for an interactive session exploring how to preserve food, revive cultural traditions, and regenerate better practices for the planet. We’ll share practical food-saving tips, simple preservation methods, and ideas to reduce waste — all grounded in our vision for community-based food systems and food sovereignty. The session will include a seed exchange and a chance to gather ideas from participants on how to take these practices further.

This is primarily a learning-focused session, but if participants bring a small jar, we’ll help them fill it with salt, oil, and mixed herbs to take home.

🌱 7:00pm – Worms at Work! Make Your Own Home Compost with Shannon Ripley & Yarrow Environmental
Curious about composting with worms? Join this hands-on workshop to learn how to set up your very own worm composter at home! We'll cover the basics of vermicomposting and why it's a great complement to Canmore’s organics program — especially for gardeners looking to harvest nutrient-rich worm castings. Participants will have the option to make their own worm composter during the session (worms provided!), or simply come to watch and learn. Perfect for green thumbs, curious minds, and anyone interested in low-waste living! 🌱

🧤7:30pm - Winter Wind Down: Clean like you mean it! with Patagonia Elements Banff

As winter winds down, it's time to give your outdoor gear the attention it deserves before it goes into hibernation for the warmer months. Proper care now will not only extend the lifespan of your equipment but also ensure it's ready for action when the cold weather returns. From jackets to gloves, here's how to protect your gear from deterioration and keep it in peak condition.

Interested in volunteering? Click below to sign up for a volunteer role.

What is a circular economy?

In our current system, we take materials from the Earth, make products from them, and eventually throw them away as waste – the process is linear. Often this linear economic model is referred to as a “take-make-waste” system.

In a circular economy, we stop waste being produced in the first place and nature is regenerated through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting.

The circular economy is based on three principles, driven by design:

• Eliminate waste and pollution

• Circulate products and materials (at their highest value)

• Regenerate nature

What is a doughnut economy?

Circular economy and doughnut economy are two different but complementary models of how economies can be reformed. They both share a common concern for accounting for nature and well-being in economic decision-making, but they have different focuses and scopes.

Doughnut economy is a framework for sustainable development that was proposed by Kate Raworth, an economist and author. The doughnut model is a simple but powerful visual tool that shows the minimum and maximum boundaries that humanity needs to respect in order to thrive.

Another way to think of it…

You have likely heard of the 3R Framework (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) developed for the 2008 Circular Economy Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China.

The extended 9R Framework is a more nuanced understanding of Circular Economy process. It includes the previous R’s and adds to them. Within this 9R Framework, there is a hierarchy or ranking of the various Rs in the R Framework, with Refuse being the most desirable or first solution and Recover being the least desirable or last solution:

• Refuse: How can we make a product redundant by abandoning its function or offering the same function in a different product?

• Rethink: How can we make the product’s use more intensive? For example, sharing a product or product as a service?

• Reduce: How can we increase efficiency in manufacturing and use so that we consume fewer natural resources and materials?

• Reuse: How can we find new users or owners of products that are still in good condition? For example, the sale of secondhand goods.

• Repair: How can we repair and maintain products to prolong the original functionality?

• Refurbish: How can we restore old products and bring them up-to-date?

• Remanufacture: How can we use parts of discarded products in the manufacturing of new products with the same function?

• Repurpose: How can we use the discarded product or its parts in a new product with a different function?

• Recycle: How can we process the products to obtain the same or lower grade quality materials?

• Recover: As a last resort, how can we incinerate the product for energy recovery?

Indigenous perspectives on Circular Economy

“Circularity has been a way of life for millennia for Indigenous peoples worldwide. The practice of crop rotation, sustainable hunting and gathering practices along with recycling has long been a part of our traditional way of life. A circular economy has never been a detached concept, but rather a complete way of life. The natural world, now commonly referred to as the “environment”, is not viewed as a separate entity but one, interconnected aspect of the whole.” - Star Horn, Kanien'kehá:ka artist

How to participate in a more Circular Bow Valley

There are many ways to participate in a circular economy in the Bow Valley. Here are some examples:

SHARE

• Biosphere Institute has a tool lending library including fruit pickers and energy efficient equipment.

• Canmore Library of Things: Toys, games, puzzles, kits and more are available to rent through your Canmore Library membership.

• Banff Library of Things: Free to all Banff and ID9 residents to borrow a variety of rarely-used, expensive, or hard-to-find items. Open M-F 10am-6pm, weekends 11-5, donations needed.

• Banff Sports Equipment Lending Program: Available at the Fenlands for a variety of sports and activities for Banff residents.

REPAIR

• The Outdoor Gear Doctor specializes in clothing and gear repair.

• Kumpfy Shoes is the Bow Valley's only shoe repair service.

REUSE

• Canmore Public Library hosts clothing swap-o-rama events! Check out their events page for details.

• See ideas for places to reuse items here.

Curious to learn more? Explore the map below to find more examples of circular economy in the Bow Valley!

Banff’s First Share and Repair Fair

On Sunday, October 20, 2024, the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley and the Town of Banff hosted its first Share and Repair Fair. We convened sixteen local organizations and businesses across the Bow Valley, and over 200+ community member attended to share, connect and learn about how we can all contribute to a circular economy in Banff.

HIGHLIGHT: Banff Borrows Reusable Cup Program

Banff is a National Park community looking to achieve a destination-coordinated approach to reusables. As a Banff resident or visitor, be a part of the solution by participating in our reusable cup program.