It’s 10:40 a.m. on a Saturday and the normally quiet precincts of the Stanford Free Library are ringing with inquiries. “Anybody got a wire brush?” asks Dave Hambleton, hands tangled in an old lamp. “Can I borrow it?”
Welcome to the Repair Cafe, a free clinic where beloved old possessions are reborn. The cafe is a local initiative that brings people with broken items together with volunteers who have the skills to fix them. The April 1 event was part of a worldwide movement that, town by town, is seeking to reform the global throwaway culture.
In Stanfordville, neat rows of worktables were arrayed around the community room. Behind them sat repair coaches surrounded by the tools of their trade; customers in need of a fix hovered hopefully nearby.
On a typical four-hour day, 40 “guests,” as they are called, walk in with beloved but broken jewelry, bicycles, lamps and record players.
“We never know what people are going to bring in, and that adds to the fun,” says Pam Dietrich, the Stanfordville event’s organizer. She says lamps and jewelry are the most common items.
Stanfordville’s Repair Cafe launched in 2019, only to be interrupted by the pandemic. “Since we restarted in 2021 we doubled in size,” says Dietrich.
Many of the coaches are retired. Others are hobbyists, or run businesses, including farms and stores. “We are very lucky,” says Dietrich. “We have a lot of talented repair coaches. What’s unique about Stanfordville is that we have so many general experts – people who can fix just about anything.”
That would describe Dave Hambleton of Sisters Hill Farm, a CSA, or community-supported agriculture, operation in Stanfordville that’s run by the Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic order. “Dave can fix anything from tractors to toasters,” confides Dietrich.
While there is no charge for the repairs, donations are welcome. “Just a dollar or two to help with supplies,” says Dietrich.
There are already 40 Repair Cafes in the greater Hudson Valley and Capital region, and the number keeps growing. The Repair Cafe Foundation provides communities wishing to establish a cafe with start-up information, including lists of tools and marketing materials.
The repair coaches come from all walks of life, but they generally agree on one thing: Most products today, they say, are manufactured so that their parts are inaccessible. When they break, you are forced to buy a new version. “It’s unsustainable,” says Dietrich.
The volunteers find satisfaction in any object they can fix rather than throw away. The United States sends 140 million tons of trash to landfills annually, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The average American deposits 4.5 pounds of garbage into landfills each day.
Each Repair Cafe volunteer has his or her reason for donating their skills. “I’m not a preacher, but I love to keep things in circulation rather than in the landfill,” says Hambleton, who has farmed for 26 years. “I’m used to fixing things,” he adds with a wry smile.
“Me, I just like to fiddle,” says Jim Bail, a retired Stanfordville resident.
They revel in small victories. “Everyone said this one toaster oven would never come back to life,” says Hambleton. “But it did. That was satisfying.”
On particularly challenging projects, they work collaboratively. “If you spend a little bit of time working together you can usually figure it out,” says Bail.
The Repair Cafe movement was started in the Netherlands in 2009 by a woman who had grown concerned about the amount of waste going into landfills. There are now more than 2,000 cafes in 30 countries.
The gatherings create a sense of togetherness as volunteers hear the life stories of the objects they are repairing. “It’s community building,” says Suzie Fromer, who coordinates all the Repair Cafes in the Hudson Valley. “It’s about rejecting consumerism, it’s about giving back. People do want to make a difference.”
She adds, “There is also the idea of teaching someone else how to fix something. That’s why they are called coaches.”
On April 1, a retired musician brought in a lamp made out of a flute and watched it come back to life. A woman arrived clutching a family heirloom, an ornate porcelain lamp in the shape of an 18th-century nobleman. She left with a grateful smile when the light came back on.
“These objects mean so much to folks,” says Fromer. “A lady recently brought me a bracelet to fix. She had tried to fix it herself but couldn’t manage as she has arthritis. It was just a simple thing, but it was so important to her.”
She adds, “Sometimes people don’t know where they have to go to fix something. Sometimes it’s too expensive to fix. So they come here.”
Got something you love that needs fixing? There’s hope! The next Repair Cafes will be at the Stanford Free Library on July 1 and October 1.