The Work of Keeping By Scarlette Ferrari
Produced by Scarlette Ferrari.
A middle-school repair shop has the school’s antique Santa and sleigh on its workbench. That is a useful way to begin asking a question towns face in less picturesque forms: What is worth keeping, and who gets to do the work?
At Frankford Township School in New Jersey, teacher Don Reinertsen began Bulldog Repair after staff kept bringing him broken things. Instead of fixing them alone, he invited students in grades five through eight to learn the job. Last year, about eight students became roughly 40; this school year, 54 are participating. They have repaired more than 150 items, from printers and desk chairs to the antique Santa, and converted five Power Wheels into electric drag racers. The work comes with a complication: safety is not a decorative lesson. Students must earn a perfect score on a general tool test before starting, and need additional training before using more equipment. The program’s repair list also includes items awaiting parts and items that could not be saved. Even a good shop has a “no.”
Keeping something requires more than tools. In Rockford, Illinois, journalism educator Ellen Austin and Rockford Public Library’s Anne O’Keefe are giving ten students another kind of kit: a summer workshop in interviewing and ethics, followed by a year-long project reporting their community from young people’s point of view. Northern Public Radio’s Peter Medlin reported that the effort grew from Austin’s concern about shrinking local news and the area’s student journalism programs. The young reporters are not a substitute for a town newsroom; the project asks what students can notice when adults make room for them to report.
Yorktown, Indiana, is learning what it means to keep a shared place after water takes it apart. August flooding left knee-deep water in the public library. Indiana Public Radio’s Abby Urban reported that staff removed damaged lower shelves, flooring and drywall; more than 3,600 items were lost, and the director estimated reopening costs above $70,000. The library is not expected to reopen until January. Nearby libraries have offered Yorktown patrons free cards, but Yorktown is not accepting book donations now. Recovery, it turns out, is not simply a matter of sending boxes. It is also time, money and a building dry enough to welcome people back.
Then there is the question of what a town can no longer afford to keep. St. Marys, Ontario, says its PC Connect regional transit service will end there on December 31. A Town announcement carried by StratfordToday says provincial funding ended in 2025, costs rose, ridership at local stops was low, and no new funding decision had arrived. Council has asked staff to look for alternatives, especially for specialized trips such as medical appointments. A bus can look underused in a count and still matter intensely to the person who needs it; the town’s challenge is to find a workable service after the partnership ends.
And keeping things going often means paying for the unglamorous middle. In an October 20 update carried by the Midland Daily News, United Way of Midland County reported raising $2,760,105 toward a $4.1 million goal after five weeks—67 percent. The campaign’s own update described volunteers adding a hands-on STEAM trail, benches and an outdoor learning space at Longview Early Childhood Center. The number is a progress report from the campaign, not an audited result, and it leaves a substantial gap to close.
So the question is not whether a town keeps everything. It cannot. It is whether people can see what is being repaired, what is being rebuilt, and what will be missed when a service ends. Maybe the answer starts with a school repair ticket, a student notebook, a library shelf, a bus timetable or a public campaign that is still short of its goal. What small, easily overlooked thing in your community would you fight to keep—and what would you change so more people could use it?