April Repair Cafe News

 

Students learned the intricacies of electronic and computer repair at the Pound Ridge Repair Cafe last month (above). March also saw the return of some of our oldest cafes, including Warwick, New Paltz, Middletown and Ossining, while the Town of Cortlandt held its first!

 

RCHV Hosts "Safety First: Electrical Fixing at a Repair Cafe"

RCHV hosted its 2nd fixer workshop in March, "Safety First," an informal discussion with some of our most experienced electrical repair coaches. We were also joined by fixers from other cafes and fixit clinics from around the country. We hope this discussion will prove helpful to new electrical fixers and organizers; some of the discussions have already sparked some improved safety protocols across our network. If you're curious to see the discussion, it is up on our RCHV YouTube channel.

April's calendar is off. the. HOOK. Let RCHV help you celebrate Earth Month in sustainable style with 22 cafes in one month. That must be a record--even for us! New cafes debut in Hebron/Salem and Glens Falls, and Pleasantville returns after a long hiatus. Rockland rounds out the calendar with THREE cafes--two pop ups with only some stations available (noted on calendar below) before closing out the month with a full repair cafe on 4/27.

April 2024 Repair Cafe Calendar

For more information, visit our online calendar.

Which Cafe's Flag Arrived First?

Did you know that 2024 marks the 15th anniversary of Repair Cafes worldwide? We've been holding them in the Hudson Valley since 2014, but the very first repair cafe was held in Amsterdam in October 2009. To celebrate, the Repair Cafe Foundation has invited all 3,000 of its repair cafes to make a flag for their flagline which will be on display in Amsterdam this October. We put the call out to our organizers to send us their flags so we can have them all sent in at once and hopefully be displayed together. And the first one just arrived--thank you Repair Cafe Tusten for this beautiful flag!

Wish Every Month Were Earth Month?

Did you know that RCHV is a program of the 501(c)3 Sustainable Hudson Valley? RCHV was founded by John Wackman, an SHV board member who connected the many (many!) cafes he inspired and nurtured into a robust repair network throughout the Hudson Valley, Catskills and Capital Region. When John passed away suddenly in 2021, SHV started a fund to hire a part-time coordinator for RCHV to try to fill the void his passing left in the repair community.


But SHV does a LOT more than just repair cafes; they also produce a Climate Action Roadmap and Toolkit, put on the Hudson Valley Climate Solutions Week every September and spearhead many more initiatives which have made the Hudson Valley a true climate leader. Please consider supporting SHV this April to help them continue their crucial work.

Donate to SHV

Repair Coach Corner

Suzie Fromer, Jewelry; RCHV Coordinator


Repair Cafes: All!


If you've seen April's calendar, you know here at RCHV we are pretty busy right now. Well, 'we' really means 'me,' and it seemed easiest to interview myself for this month's fixer feature, so here goes!


I was introduced to the concept of repair from an early age, as my father specialized in the restoration of vintage furniture and antique woodworking tools at our family's shop, Fromer's Antiques. I was also inspired by my father's craftmanship to learn jewelry making, first as a camper at Buck's Rock Performing and Creative Arts Camp and then as a teaching assistant at Dartmouth College's jewelry studio. After college, I earned an M.F.A. in film production from the University of Southern California and worked in various capacities in the film industry.


In 2005, I moved to Westchester, NY for my husband's job, where we have lived for the past 18 years with our two sons. In that time, I have run a food allergy support group, been an outspoken advocate for OIT food allergy treatments, chaired the board of my local farmers market and started my own business, Little Hook Co. Jewelry.


Then in 2019, I saw a post on Face­book seeking vol­un­teers for the new Hast­ings Re­pair Cafe. I reached out and offered to do simple jewelry repairs; I wasn't sure I was qualified to do repair work but I figured I had some tools, some vintage findings from my antiquing days and some basic jewelry know how, and besides--they had no one else to do it! Well, as you may have guessed--after that very first cafe, I was hooked. Now, as part of my role as RCHV's coordinator, I travel al­most every Sat­ur­day to a dif­fer­ent cafe to meet the different or­ga­niz­ers and re­pair coaches, take photos for our social media needs and answer questions from people interested in opening new cafes and--I fix jew­elry! It's hard to pick what the best part of the job is because it is all so enjoyable, but fixing jewelry has truly become a passion of mine. As an added bonus, I've found that doing so much repair work has informed my jewelry design; when you see the same things break over and over you learn what points of failure to avoid in your own work.


I don't get to the Capital Region as much as I would like due to family responsibilities, but I am at cafes throughout Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Ulster, and Sullivan counties almost every weekend. I love to chat (seriously, I do!) so please come say hi if you see me at a cafe. I adore this community and this work so much, it has truly been a privilege and an honor to follow in John Wackman's footsteps and try to do his legacy proud.

RCHV in the News

Warwick repair coaches Wyatt Dul (above) and Fred Rossi were featured for their touching story of human connection in the Warwick Advertiser in March.

"Repair Café Builds Human Connections" (Warwick Repair Cafe). Warwick Advertiser, March 22nd, 2024.


"On the Mend: If it’s broken, Suzie Fromer ’94 can fix it." (RCHV), Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, March/April, 2024.

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