fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Holiday Gift Subscription
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Repair Cafe gives broken items new life and saves landfill space

by Janet Asiain
April 13, 2016
in General News, Voices
0

hammer timeThe three famous Rs — Reduce/Reuse/Recycle — have expanded to include a fourth — Repair.

Ulster County now hosts several Repair Cafés. Anyone can show up with a “broken but beloved” item and an expert tinkerer will fix it (or at least give it a shot). It’s an idea that appeals to people who don’t want to replace every item that stops working, not to mention people who can’t afford the cost.

Originating in Amsterdam in 2009, Repair Cafés have spread over the globe in a few short years. We have John Wackman to thank for bringing the first Repair Café to New Paltz two years ago. Since then Rosendale, Kingston, Gardiner and Rhinebeck have all started their own, with rumors of one starting up in Woodstock in the near future. They’re monthly events, with at least one and often two happening in different locations each month. Usually a given town will offer one every couple of months.

So how does it work? You take an item (or items) you’d like repaired, sign in, and get assigned to the person volunteering that day who knows how to fix your lamp, patio umbrella, bike, necklace, doll, printer, antique garden hoe, ancient transistor radio, paper shredder, ripped hem — pretty much anything. All these items were being worked on at the Repair Café I attended in Kingston last month. Then you sit with that person while he or she works on your item, learning about repairs or just shooting the breeze. If there’s a wait for your turn, you can hang out with others who are waiting. It really is a café, with snacks and drinks offered for a small donation, and people really do talk to each other. I saw no one with their face buried in a smart phone. People seemed pleased to meet each other.

I sat down with Gai and Dmitri Galitzine, organizers of the Kingston Repair Café and Transition Town supporters, to learn more about why they think it’s such a great idea. Dmitri emphasized how we’ve been educated to replace things instead of repairing them by our disposable society. In fact, we’ve nearly forgotten that things used to be repaired. He talked about how marketing makes us prefer shiny new things, which can also be very cheap because of the outsourcing of manufacture. Some new things are even (often intentionally) made more difficult or impossible to repair, as rivets replace screws, for example. But others continue to be easy to fix, like toasters, vacuums, and blenders. I met a woman at the Repair Café in Kingston who told me that she’d brought in a hair dryer, expecting to hear that such things couldn’t be repaired, that got fixed up good as new. The target population in Kingston is the underserved who really need to get things fixed because they can’t afford to replace them, but plenty of people “on the same wavelength” attend just because they think it’s a great idea.

Repair Cafes are grassroots operations, organized in each town by residents who recruit people who know how to fix things for one Saturday every month or two, find a venue (often a church basement or library, even, as in Rhinebeck, a town hall), publicize the event, and find a local business (or someone) to provide edibles. At most Repair Café, you can reasonably expect to find someone who will be able to fix electronics (including computers), electrical and mechanical appliances, wood objects (including furniture), china and glass, bikes, books, clothes and jewelry, and toys and stuffed animals. A few specialists will travel to different towns on occasion, but each town relies upon its own residents to supply most of the know-how.

John Wackman, who was working at the Kingston Repair Café, estimates that close to 80 percent of the items that turn up get fixed. So while you’re not guaranteed to have your item fixed, you will have an interesting time and learn something. I personally had a great time and learned that the printer handed down to me by my daughter, which was prone to paper jams, didn’t have a problem at all but did need a new ink cartridge. I’ll be back with my non-suctioning vacuum clear, which I’m pretty sure needs a little expert attention, not just to be plugged in!

Besides promoting sustainability, Repair Cafes are also important as “re-skilling” workshops, where people can learn not only that many things can indeed be repaired but also, in some cases, how to do it. “Re-skilling” is a major focus of the Transition Town Initiative, an international sustainability movement. Repairing things isn’t the only thing we’ve forgotten how to do. Here in Saugerties, for example, canning fruits and vegetables for the winter has been revived by the Long Spoon Collective, a Transition Town working group. Think of all the things your grandparents knew how to do and how easy it is for that knowledge to disappear if it isn’t handed down. These arts can be “lost in a generation,” as Gai Galitzine put it.

David Bruner of Kingston Transition describes Repair Café as a sort of franchise. To start one, an organizer would go to the Repair Cafe website (www.repaircafe.org), where all the necessary information is available, including how to get a start-up manual, publicity materials, and much more. You can also go to the local group of organizers’ Facebook page (Repair Cafe Hudson Valley) or contact John Wackman directly at (646) 302-5835 or jwackman@gmail.com.

You’ll find John in person from 10-3 at the May 23 Repair Café at the United Methodist Church in New Paltz as they celebrate their second year of operation. There will be another on Saturday, June 13 in Rosendale at St Peter’s Catholic Church and in Kingston again on June 27. What a great idea! Shouldn’t we get one going in Saugerties? Sustainable Saugerties Transition Town would be only too happy to support someone in this effort. Along with the contacts named above, send an email to sustainablesaugerties@gmail.com if you’re interested.

Janet Asiain’s column appears monthly.

Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Downtown New Paltz celebrates Ludwig Day

Next Post

Every Father’s Daughter

Janet Asiain

Related Posts

Dog rescued from Wallkill River’s icy grip
General News

Dog rescued from Wallkill River’s icy grip

February 5, 2023
Is the Moon the perfect shape?
Columns

Is the Moon the perfect shape?

February 2, 2023
Tyre Nichols,  Joule Community Power, “enslaved people” and more letters from our readers
Letters

Tyre Nichols, Joule Community Power, “enslaved people” and more letters from our readers

February 1, 2023
The history of race: America’s collective subjectivity
Op-ed

The history of race: America’s collective subjectivity

January 30, 2023
America has been good to the Curtins from County Cork
Columns

America has been good to the Curtins from County Cork

January 27, 2023
Calamar, Terramor, a song request and more letters from our readers
Letters

Calamar, Terramor, a song request and more letters from our readers

January 25, 2023
Next Post

Every Father's Daughter

Trending News

  • One-man crime spree comes to end after Kingston man runs out of luck 3.7k views
  • Saugerties to host inaugural Snow Moon Festival February 3 to 5 2k views
  • Visit Kingston’s 12,240-square-foot squat, centrally located with wood-burning fireplace 1.7k views
  • The Bruynswyck Inn Oyster & Clam Bar offers fresh seafood and Shawangunk views 1.6k views
  • 20-foot, 10-wheel big rig overturns in Saugerties, injuring driver 1.2k views
  • Neighbors protest Ulster County Veterans’ Cemetery flagpole spotlights 752 views

Weather

Kingston
◉
34°
Mostly Cloudy
7:02 am5:17 pm EST
Feels like: 34°F
Wind: 0mph ENE
Humidity: 69%
Pressure: 29.95"Hg
UV index: 0
TueWedThu
43/32°F
46/27°F
39/37°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Holiday Gift Subscription

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing