November Repair Cafe News

We held thirteen Repair Cafes in October, including three on Oct. 21st which was International Repair Day. Highland Falls returned in a new location and Pound Ridge had a very busy cafe at a new locale after outgrowing their previous space. Mamaroneck's annual annual Repair Cafe also returned last month (see group photo above).

RCHV and Rockland Repair Cafe Featured on Podcast "Many Shades of Green" Podcast


Suzie Fromer, the RCHV coordinator, and Kathy Galione, the Rockland Repair Cafe organizer, were interviewed by Maxine Margo Rubin and Marcus Berman on their environmental podcast "Many Shades of Green" that dropped on October 26th. This podcast is produced by Rockland County's Hudson River Radio and was out in time to help advertise the two Rockland Repair Cafes happening in November.


You can listen here or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Interested in a Cafe in Ellenville?

We've been some rumblings about interest in a cafe in Ellenville. We're working on putting a team together to make this happen--if you have any interest in either being on the organizing team, volunteering with the cafe or being a repair coach at an Ellenville location, please reach out to fromer@sustainhv.

Repair Coach Corner

Ken Winterling

Mechanical, Electrical, Sewing Machines, plus!

Cafes: Middletown, Mamakating, Warwick, Montgomery, Woodbury


If you’ve been to one of our Orange County cafés over the past few years, you have probably seen Ken Winterling hard at work. Ken is an electrical/mechanical repair coach who will try to repair almost anything, including sewing machines, toys and clocks. I asked him if he had any ‘specialty’ items he fixed. His reply? “If I fix it, it is a ‘specialty.’ If I can’t fix it then it isn’t.”

 

Ken has also been responsible for implementing a lamp parts box at every café where he volunteers. Lamps are one of the items most often brought to Repair cafés and he realized having a well-stocked lamp parts box was essential to a successful cafe. He adds, “With a maintained inventory we can repair almost every lamp brought in.” Ken based his parts box on one he saw at his first Warwick Repair Cafe where Bob “FixItBob” Berkowitz had established a simple inventory system. True to the generous spirit of the repair movement, Ken has even assisted new café organizers in other counties of our network to set up parts boxes and source lamp and electrical parts, and we are eternally grateful for his willingness to share his expertise.

 

Ken started volunteering with RCHV in 2019 when he saw a notice in his local newspaper about the Middletown Repair Cafe. Ken says at his very first repair café, “A Times-Herald Record reporter spent a lot of time watching me work, asking questions about the repairs, and taking pictures. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the newspaper the next morning and saw my picture in the upper right-hand corner of page 1! Now I had no choice but to volunteer at other Repair Cafes!”

            

Before retiring, Ken spent 45 years working in the telecommunications field, work he started at just 17 years old when he repaired teletype machines and modems for Anderson-Jacobsen Teletype. During his long career in the field, he worked in many different roles at Timeplex, Western Union, Lederle Labs and Mercedes-Benz, where worked for 31 years.

 

Now that he’s retired, Ken enjoys spending time riding a hybrid bicycle and hiking. He’s also been an FCC licensed amateur (ham) radio operator for almost 55 years and is a retired volunteer NYS EMT and NYS EMT Instructor. And as so many of our repair coaches do, he has a true passion for repair work. In addition to the many repair cafes he attends, sometimes accompanied by his wife, Terri, who volunteers as a jewelry repair coach, Ken can be found in his home workshop working on electrical, electronic, and mechanical items and toys, new and old radio receivers, transmitters and guitar amplifiers as well as vintage equipment with vacuum tubes.

 

If you have any questions for Ken, you can reach him at wa2lbi@gmail.com or at his ham radio callsign WA2LBI.

November brings yet another busy month of Repair Cafes here in the Hudson Valley, Catskills and Capital Region. Get your clocks fixed in time for them to 'fall back' and make sure you are ready for the longer dark days with lamp repairs at any of our thirteen repair cafes throughout the Hudson Valley, Catskills or Capital region this November, including a lamps only LampFest in Rockland on Sunday, November 19th.

November 2023 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 Cafe. Thank you!

Donate to RCHV

RCHV in the News


"Suzie Fromer and Kathy Galione from The Repair Cafe" (RCHV and Rockland Repair Cafe), 'Many Shades of Green' podcast. October 26, 2023.

 

"Community Spotlight: Hudson Valley Repair Cafe" (RCHV), UCCRA Newsletter, October 20, 2023.

 

"Don't Throw it Out, Your Neighbors Will Help you Fix it in Mamaroneck" (Mamaroneck Repair Cafe), Larchmont-Mamaroneck Patch, October 13, 2023.

 

"Let's Talk, Kingston About Repair Cafe Hudson Valley with Melissa Iachetta (Kingston Repair Cafe) and Suzie Fromer (RCHV)", Radio Kingston, October 6, 2023.

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