February Repair Cafe News

There were eleven RCHV repair cafes in January in addition to a flurry of activity behind the scenes from new cafes eager to join our network; seems like everyone's New Year's resolution was 'start a repair cafe!' January saw some of our longest standing cafes return including New Paltz and Warwick (see a great group shot of the Warwick Repair Cafe crew above) and Hyde Park held its second successful cafe.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Cold temperatures making you wish you'd bought a new coat this year? No need--we literally have you covered at our repair cafes with our RCHV logo Noso Patches. They are ideal for covering tears in outwear or other outdoor gear like backpacks. They can help prevent a small hole from getting bigger and they're really simple to use--no sewing or ironing, just some heat in the dryer to help them set. We're trying to get these out to all our cafes, so ask for them there, or email michelleelisecostume@gmail.com. For $6.00 each she'll drop them in the mail to you ASAP, instructions included!

RCHV Launches Fixer Workshop Series on our YouTube Channel

We are thrilled to announce that we have launched a new Zoom series of Fixer Workshops. The goal is to help us spread specialized skills from some of our expert fixers more widely throughout our network in order to help more guests at more cafes.


We started off the series with a phenomenal zipper repair workshop led by our 'Zipper Fixer' Michelle Elise. The workshop was watched live by many repairers from across the country and even more will continue to benefit (including you, if you're curious!) as it is now up on our RCHV YouTube Channel here.

Short Month - Don't Care!


We're packing the shortest month of the year full of repair cafes, including the return of Poughkeepsie on the 10th and a new date of the 24th for Rhinebeck, which will be held on the 4th Saturday instead of the 2nd for just this month. As noted on the calendar below, a few cafes have selected snow dates; we will post on our website homepage and social media if they are needed.

February 2024 Repair Cafe Calendar

For more information, visit our online calendar.

Textile Repair Coach Amy Smith (pictured above at the Stanford cafe) is interested in starting up a new cafe in Dover Plains. Help us grow the movement by donating specifically to our New Repair Cafe Fund.

Donations Needed to Start New Cafes

Whenever we get an inquiry from a potential new cafe, there's one piece of bad news we have to deliver. Although RCHV doesn't charge anything for our ongoing support, there are still expenses in starting up a new repair cafe. Unless their town offers them funding, volunteer organizers often have to dig into their own pockets to start a cafe. Joining the international Repair Cafe organization, stocking a lamps parts kit, creating eye-catching signage and feeding cafe guests and fixers all add up. But now you can help! If you'd like to give a tax deductible donation to RCHV's New Repair Cafe Fund, you can now do so through the below button. Donations will go to RCHV's fiscal sponsor, the 501(c)3 Sustainable Hudson Valley, but if you make a note that your donation should be designated for the new cafe fund, it will go towards helping new cafes cover their start up costs. Thank you for helping us continue to grow the Repair Cafe movement in New York!

Donate to RCHV

Repair Coach Corner

Naomi Aubain, Woodworking


Repair Cafes: Esopus, Gardiner, New Paltz


Several years ago, Naomi got a call out of the blue from John Wackman, the founder of Repair Café Hudson Valley and the organizer of the New Paltz Repair Café. He had seen Naomi’s advertisements for her local furniture repair business, Furniture Fixitor, and was calling her to see if she’d be interested in volunteering at a café to do wood repairs. The timing was perfect. “John reaching out was the best kind of invitation as I had seen the repair cafe announcements in the paper and wanted to check it out anyway. My first cafe happened to be the New Paltz 5th anniversary celebration which was a great introduction to the repair cafe world.”


Since then, Naomi has become a familiar face at many Ulster repair cafes as she regularly serves as a woodworking repair coach at Esopus and Gardiner in addition to New Paltz. She also still runs her furniture repair shop in New Paltz where she mainly focuses on structural repairs like tightening loose joints and fixing or replacing broken parts. “I also do seat weaving with cane, rush, Danish cord, etc; and small upholstery jobs for dining room chair seats and similar projects. I don’t do major stripping and refinishing, but I can refer people to colleagues who do.”


In addition to the satisfaction of fixing things, what keeps Naomi coming back to café after café is that she really enjoys working with people who want to learn about the repairs. She finds that helping them be involved in the repair process, empowering them to ask questions and ultimately showing them how to do a repair themselves is often the most rewarding part. Like many other skilled craftspeople, Naomi enjoys crafting across a wide variety of disciplines. Lately in addition to her woodworking she’s also been doing a lot of crochet work as well as sewing. And when the line at her woodworking table dwindles she’s even found herself taking on other repairs at a cafe like gluing, a popular request. “Late one fall a woman came in with a plastic model of the starship Enterprise from the Star Trek TV show. She wanted to use it as a decoration for the top of a Christmas tree and was pretty upset that it had broken. The pieces needed to be coaxed back together and she watched intently as I cut and sliced to get them to fit. Then she helped me hold it together when the glue was applied. It was a cool little project that came out well, and she was so happy with the repair. Sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most.”

Naomi can be contacted for professional work or café questions through her website.

RCHV in the News

"Repair Café Coming To Schuylerville Public Library Feb. 3" (Schuylerville Repair Cafe), Saratoga Today, January 18th, 2024.

Visit our Website