AUBURN — While Goodwill is known nationally as one of America’s favorite spots to shop secondhand, the Auburn Goodwill on Thursday had a new mission: repairing clothes, rather than selling them.

A combined effort by Maine GearShare and Goodwill Northern New England, the free clothing repair fair gave Lewiston-Auburn residents the chance to have their damaged clothes fixed by Maine GearShare’s skilled staff and volunteers.

Based in Brunswick, Maine GearShare is a gear lending library. Not only does the company rent gear out, it also offers its own gear repair program.

“People really love (it),” Maine GearShare Advancement Manager Emily Mackeown said.

Although folks can drop off or mail their damaged gear at Maine GearShare’s physical location in Brunswick, part of the initiative also involves hosting repair fairs throughout the state.

Thursday’s free clothing repair fair was one of these monthly pop-up events — with a twist.

“We typically focus on outdoor gear and apparel,” Mackeown said. Since they were partnering with Goodwill, however, the team had to broaden its scope and fix all sorts of everyday items.

“It’s great! We’re able to keep those clothes out of the landfill,” Mackeown said of repairing everything from jackets to jeans. “So often those ‘damaged’ clothes do have a lot of life left in them. They just need one little repair to be wearable again.”

Asked about Goodwill Northern New England’s partnership with Maine GearShare, Retail Marketing and Communication Specialist Morgan Sewall said, “It’s a natural fit. We’ve always been a leader in reuse, but never really in repair before.”

For Goodwill Northern New England, hosting events like Thursday’s fair is part of their broader mission of promoting sustainability.

“Fashion is the second biggest polluter in the world right now,” Sewall said.

Repairing damaged clothes and resisting the urge to throw them out, according to Sewall, can help fight fast fashion and the environmental harm it wreaks.

The problem? Many people have no idea how to mend everyday wearables or lack the equipment or supplies needed to do so.

“Not everyone knows how to sew or fix a zipper that’s become misaligned,” Sewall pointed out.

That’s why events like repair fair are so important, she stressed.

Not only does repairing clothes help the environment, it has an emotional impact on the owners of those items — and the workers who repair them.

Juliana Beecher, who volunteers with Maine GearShare, said her favorite part of the job is “to hear people’s stories behind the items.”

“Often people … have a sentimental connection (with it),” she explained. “There are memories associated with that item.”

She said some of the most rewarding items to repair are people’s cherished, well-worn clothes.

“My favorites are when it’s somebody’s jacket that they’ve kept for 30 years. It’s got holes in it. And they’re just like: ‘I want to keep wearing it. It’s like my favorite thing to wear.’ It’s fun to get to help people keep things,” Beecher said.

One of the items Beecher repaired Thursday was a vintage pearl clutch.

Since the bag was missing some pearls, Beecher fixed it through “a combination of hand-sewing and gluing some pearls on.”

“It’s always fun to figure out how to fix something like that,” she explained.

When the stylish bag was repaired, Beecher, smiling, gave the bag back to its owner, Karen Diaku.

Reunited with her clutch, Diaku waxed enthusiastically about the purse’s beauty.

“It’s vintage,” she pointed out proudly.

She purchased the bag at Goodwill before noticing that “a couple of pearls were missing and some were coming off.”

To save her prized find, Diaku found some old pearl earrings and decided to bring the purse and earrings to the fair, hoping they’d be able to use them to fix the clutch.

“It’s perfect!” she said of Beecher’s finished product.

Like Diaku, Alison Hamlin came to the fair hoping that someone would fix one of her most precious belongings.

The item is a wallet she bought while on vacation in Portugal.

Hamlin remembered the vacation fondly and explained that she had hiked part of the Camino de Santiago, a famous network of historic pilgrimage routes.

Not only was the vacation made special by Portugal’s stunning beauty, but because she “had finished chemotherapy six months before leaving.”

When Josh Bossin, the executive director of Maine GearShare, gave Hamlin back her memento from Portugal, Hamlin was full of gratitude.

“You made my day!” she told Bossin.

Although he didn’t know the story behind the wallet, James Fargnoli, who had fixed Hamlin’s wallet, reacted with joy after learning about the item’s importance to her.

“Those are the best repairs,” Fargnoli said with a smile. “It’s small. It’s not complicated. But, to help someone like that … it’s really meaningful and rewarding. It makes me happy.”