May Repair Cafe News

Highland Falls Repair Cafe organizer Olga Anderson (above) put on an Earth Day event and repair cafe at the Highland Falls Library last month. Hebron/Salem Repair Cafe held its inaugural cafe up in the 'North Country' and RCHV held 21 cafes overall in April!

Sustainable Hudson Valley Holds Coolest Recycling Drive in Ulster

Earth Month may be over but Sustainable Hudson Valley's (SHV)'s work is not finished! Starting May 1st, they are hosting the Ulster County Coolest Recycling Drive at the New Paltz Recycling and Reuse Center, located at 99 Clearwater Road in New Paltz.


Drop off your broken or old refrigerant-containing appliances and SHV will ensure they get recycled properly. You can drop them off for free at the New Paltz Recycling Center during the drop off dates and times listed (see lower left picture). It usually costs $15-50 to recycle an old air conditioner or mini-fridge, so take advantage of this spring cleaning opportunity! There's also a one-day drop location in Kingston during the Kingston Earth Fair at TR Gallo Park. Though the drop off locations are all in Ulster County, this opportunity is not limited to Ulster County residents!


Major thanks to New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management and their collaborators Climate Smart Kingston, New Yorkers for Clean Power, Hudson Technologies, New Paltz Recycling and Reuse Center and Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency.

Bring us Your Broken but Beloved Items--but Please Bring Them Clean!

We LOVE fixing your stuff--from bikes to toasters to vacuum cleaners to textiles! And we know those things might have been broken for, well, quite a while, and so they might not be in tip top shape when you finally get around to bringing them to a cafe. But if you could please take a few minutes before bringing them in to make sure your textiles have been washed or to wipe off those cobwebs, bang out those crumbs, empty out that really (REALLY) full vacuum bag and clean off that bike, it would save our fixers a lot of time, grief, and grease!

May's calendar is back to its usual design thanks to a more 'sustainable' pace! Kingston returns to Redeemer Lutheran Church on Saturday, May 4th, the same day as the popular Schenectady Repair Cafe. May 18th sees the launch of the Averill Park/SHAC Center Repair Cafe in the Capital Region and the Greenburgh Repair Cafe debuts the same day in Westchester County.

May 2024 Repair Cafe Calendar

For more information, visit our online calendar.

Help us keep Repair Cafe Hudson Valley going strong! Please consider donating at the link below. Donations go to our fiscal sponsor, the 501(c)3 Sustainable Hudson Valley, but will be earmarked for RCHV if you make a note saying it is for Repair Cafes. Thank you!

Donate to RCHV

Repair Coach Corner

Lisa Antonelli, Electrical/Mechanical/Woodworking


Repair Cafes: Rivertowns


Lisa Antonelli first learned tinkering and basic repair skills at a young age from her dad. One of the most important lessons she learned from him? “How to take things apart in an organized manner so I don’t lose pieces!”


Lisa considers herself a beginner mechanical/electrical fixer at her local Rivertowns Repair Cafes. She was first introduced to the program by fellow Irvingtonian and RCHV Coordinator Suzie Fromer. “My friend Suzie encouraged me to give it a try! I started out sort of triaging…taking things apart, trying to fix them and then asking for help from the more experienced fixers.” Lisa says she doesn’t have a specialty—yet—but she can fix almost any lamp and, thanks to her work partnering with more experienced fixers, has also fixed clocks, a CD player, hot water makers, and much more.


In addition to being a mom, Lisa worked as a bookkeeper and business operations manager at Beta Climbing + Fitness. Before that she was trading international bonds at a mutual fund and served as a corporate paralegal. 


Now, Lisa is focused on giving back to her community. In addition to volunteering at her local repair cafes, she is on the steering committee for Irvington’s Green Policy Task Force for which she also oversees the Waste Nothing subcommittee. She also volunteers as a ‘Waste Warrior’ for Hudson Compost Services, a local, residential food scrap collection service. Lisa is also a real animal lover and is a rescue mom to one dog and two cats. She and her husband regularly walk dogs at Paws Crossed Animal Rescue in Elmsford. 


Like many other repair coaches, Lisa finds the collaborative learning environment of repair cafes inspiring. “My favorite experiences are when I’m working with the other fixers. Everyone comes at a broken item with different perspectives, and it’s very rewarding when ideas are shared and thoughtfully considered. But also, fixing woodworking pieces where a fixer just needs an extra set of hands to hold two pieces of wood together while the other drills/screws/glues. There’s something special about the tactile experience of two sets of hands working together on the same item.”


RCHV in the News

RCHV was well represented at April's UlsterCorps Service Summit by (pictured above, l to r) Suzie Fromer (coordinator), Melissa Iachetta (Kingston co-organizer and panel speaker at the event), Holly Shader (New Paltz and Gardiner organizer) and Michelle Elise (zipper repair coach).

"UlsterCorps Hosts Environmental Justic Summit" (RCHV, SUNY New Paltz RC), The Oracle, April 25th, 2024.


"Solving Problems with Paul Feiner: Repair Cafe" (RCHV, Rivertowns RC, Greenburgh RC), Town of Greenburgh TV, Episode 11, April 4, 2024.


"Difference Maker: A Volunteer Repair Movement" (RCHV), WCBS 880 Radio, April, 2024.

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