Sixth grade fixer helps pass Right to Repair

A fair number of 12-year-olds come to free community repair events such as Boulder’s U-Fix-It Clinic. But sixth grader Nuri Broestl isn’t just there to get something fixed, he’s one of the fixers.

Nuri is already a curious learner. In addition to guitar lessons after school, he has taken to tinkering with the broken amplifiers at his music school – a task that has led him to fix three different guitar amps already.

Passionate about repair, Nuri joined with PIRG and others to pass a state Right to Repair bill in his home state of Colorado. Right to Repair legislation ensures that consumers and local repair businesses can get the parts, tools and service information that they need to fix our phones, IT equipment, appliances and guitar amps.

During his testimony in front of the state Senate Committee on Business, Labor, and Technology, Nuri informed senators that he is currently unable to fix his guitar amp since the manufacturer has not made a service manual public. 

“Service manuals and schematics would help me understand how the amplifier works, diagnose the problem, and fix this guitar amp,” Nuri explained.

Repair saves money and reduces the frequency of junking broken devices. But we don’t repair as much as we should, because manufacturers often refuse to share materials such as service manuals that enable us to safely and properly fix our stuff. In doing so, they set up barriers for the next generation of tinkerers, problem solvers and engineers. 

Thankfully, lawmakers heeded Nuri’s call for change and passed new legislation which requires companies to share the materials he needs to keep fixing things.