KarunaNews Story

Denman Island, in British Columbia, Canada, is home to about 1,391 people and a payphone. Yes, a real, functioning payphone in a cool phone booth. The payphone was outside the General Store for decades; when the news came in 2021 that it would be removed, residents didn’t take it quietly. They lobbied the company responsible for the phone to keep it, but they efforts weren’t successful. The phone was removed in August, 2022. It seemed like the end of the story, but it was also a new beginning. Nathan Garfat was one of many Denmanites troubled by the phone’s demise. He is a blacksmith—a maker, fixer, and problem solver. He began imagining a way to bring the phone back, not as a corporate utility, but as a community creation. He found a phone booth for sale and through a social media post enlisted help to buy and refurbish it. The final installation is a place for phone calls, art venue, source of empowerment for children and modest monument to the island’s do-it-yourself spirit.