March Repair Cafe News

Many hands made light work (literally!) in February as we packed ten repair cafes into the shortest month of the year. We saw the return of the Poughkeepsie cafe, where guests got hands-on with their own fixes. Some guests learned to reupholster chairs while others assisted in rewiring their own lamps (see above).

RCHV Helps Launch Repair Cafes in the Finger Lakes Region

New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation lists RCHV as a resource for towns looking to start repair cafes as part of the Climate Smart Communities program. So when a group of cafes in the Finger Lakes region reached out for some advice, we were happy to assist! We're very pleased to announce that The Village of Montour Falls and the Town of Hector are partnering to bring two repair cafes to Schuyler County, NY this spring. The first cafe will be held Saturday, April 20 from 10am to 2pm at the Montour Falls Fire Department and the second will be held in Hector in June.


For more information, please contact Sustainable Montour Falls.

March's calendar includes some of our longest running cafes including Warwick, New Paltz, Middletown and Ossining. Kingston returns on the 9th to Redeemer Lutheran Church on Wurts Street and the Town of Cortlandt debuts its first cafe.

March 2024 Repair Cafe Calendar

For more information, visit our online calendar.

If You Build it, They Will Come: How New Repair Cafes Get Started

Textile Repair Coach Linda Armour (pictured above at the Rhinebeck cafe) is working with us to start a cafe in Saugerties which will hold its first event on Saturday June 1st. For more information, contact rcsaugerties@gmail.com.

We often get comments on our posts and emails asking us 'when can you bring this to our town??' But unfortunately that's not how this very grassroots, volunteer-led movement happens. Each cafe in our network started with a scrappy group of dedicated, local volunteers deciding they wanted to hold a repair cafe. From the enthusiasm and passion of John Wackman, the first organizer in our group (New Paltz Repair Cafe), one cafe grew into a network of cafes now over 60 strong throughout the Hudson Valley, Catskills, Capital Region and North Country.


Also founded by John, RCHV networks our organizers together to support one another. This enables us to share information, advice, fixing solutions, equipment and parts lists (as well as much much more) which all help to supplement the Repair Cafe kit cafes must purchase from the International Repair Cafe Foundation. If a town is lucky enough to have a Climate Smart Communities committee, organizers should also reach out to them for additional support to get a new cafe off the ground.


We're going to be honest--it's a lot of work! But it is also a labor of love--for our communities, our neighbors and our planet. And RCHV and the other repair cafe organizers are there to help lighten the load every step of the way. As the movement continues to experience exponential growth in 2024, RCHV is working hard to streamline systems to make opening new cafes as easy as possible. From the creation of a fixer list to making training and safety videos for new fixers, we hope to help bring a cafe to every town that wants one.

How our 'Donate' Button is Different From

the Donation Jar at a Cafe

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Almost all of our cafes accept cash donations, and we are so grateful for your incredible generosity! But did you know those donations stay with the cafes--they don't come back to RCHV? Instead, they go towards other important cafe expenses including feeding our fixers, volunteers and guests, producing signage and making sure the cafes are stocked with lamp parts and other essential supplies.


Unlike cash donations at the cafes, donations given through the button below go to our fiscal sponsor, the 501(c)3 Sustainable Hudson Valley. Please make a note that your donation should be designated for RCHV to help make things like this newsletter, our monthly calendar, our RCHV social media postings and much, much more possible. Thank you for helping us continue to grow the #repairrevolution and making the Hudson Valley synonymous with the Repair Cafe movement!

Donate to RCHV

Repair Coach Corner

Chris Ham, Computers, Electrical


Repair Cafes: Capital Region


I met Computer Repair Coach Chris Ham at one of my first cafes as RCHV coordinator and what struck me most was his set up; it was unlike anything I’d ever seen at a repair cafe before. It includes a large but portable computer screen tucked into to a pegboard box with an impressive number of cables going every which way. So it was with some consternation that I recently learned that he was relocating for work away from Dutchess County where he had long been a fixture at the Pleasant Valley, Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park Repair Cafés. But it seems Dutchess County’s loss is the Capital Region’s gain as Chris relocated to the Albany area--which is still within RCHV’s coverage area!


I actually didn’t know until I wrote up this profile that Chris also fixes more than computers. He says, “If it has a battery, plug, and/or a screen, I’ve probably had one at my table. From coffee makers to computers, telephones to toasters, vegetable steamers to VCRs, I'm always up for a surprise!” For work, Chris is a controls engineer, which he roughly translates for us as "a guy who programs machines in factories,” a job he really loves. And like all of our coaches, he also really loves fixing things. He was first introduced to the Repair Cafe movement back in 2014 when he was asked to help out with the first Rhinebeck Repair Café, and he’s been repairing ever since. “Even during my time in Utica for college, I'd make the hour drive over to Syracuse for their Repair Cafes to get my fix!”


Chris says he especially enjoys fixing video game consoles and performing 'non-critical' data recovery. Conjuring up lost photos or documents from an 'empty' SD card, a defiant old laptop, water-logged phone or pile of floppy disks is particularly satisfying (and yes, those are all actual success stories of his!) But his favorite fixes are those that pull in several repair coaches for multi-disciplinary problems such as old VCRs, TVs and radios and even the occasionally challenging vacuum. “One time, 3-4 of us coaches teamed up for a Power Wheels ride-on car for children. 90% of the battle requiring our combined efforts was just getting to the problem part inside the 'kid-proof' plastic exterior!”


Chris only very recently moved to Albany (and in fact actually commuted back for the recent Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie cafes) so he’s still getting acquainted with the Capital Region cafes, but you can expect to see him at one soon; “I've been to the Wynantskill and Clifton Park Repair Cafes and hope to become a regular at those and others nearby.”

RCHV in the News

Repair Coach Carl Verderber (above, right) was featured in The Daily Catch for his work at the Rhinebeck Repair Cafe on Saturday, February 24th.

"We’re Better Together: Repair Cafe Coaches Fix Citizens’ Broken Goods, in Gesture of Community and Love of Earth." (Rhinebeck Repair Cafe/Red Hook Repair Cafe). The Daily Catch, February 26th, 2024.


"Toss it? No Way. Bring it to Repair Cafe." (RCHV), The Odessa Files, February 16th, 2024.


"Here to Repair: Electric City Barn Repair Cafe in Schenectady" (Schenectady Repair Cafe), The Daily Gazette, February 5th, 2024.


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