After years long hiatus, the Peekskill Repair Cafe is roaring back into Peekskill and making a triumphant comeback at the Peekskill Elks Lodge, located at 1038 Brown Street, on Saturday, November 16th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Repair Cafes are local run, pop-up events that promote repairing your beloved but broken items as an alternative to throwing them out and ending up in a landfill or rubbish heap. What kind of items get fixed at the Repair Cafe? Just about anything and everything! Mechanical & electrical items, lamps, fans, vacuums, clocks, electrical appliances, digital devices such as laptops, tablets, cell phones, bikes, chairs, jewelry, wooden things, clothing, home textiles, toys, stuffed animals, tools in need of sharpening, the list goes on. Please note though, gas-powered equipment is NOT accepted.

Volunteer repair coaches generally are able to fix around 80 percent of the items brought into a cafe. Repair cafes are also community building events. Repair Cafe Coordinator, jewelry repair coach and Irvington resident Suzie Fromer describes the mood at a cafe; “Everyone is so happy to be there. It’s sort of beautiful to put on an event where neighbor is helping neighbor for the sheer joy of it. But we’re also do­ing some­thing more—we’re cre­at­ing a cul­ture shift. To­gether, we are trans­form­ing our throw­away so­ci­ety into one that buys less and re­cy­cles, reuses and re­pairs more.”

Repairs are free and are scheduled to those on a first come, first served basis. True to the café name, fresh coffee, tea and snacks will be there for guests while they wait. Repair cafes are not drop off services. As the old proverb goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Repair cafés hold true to that saying. Guests of the repair cafe sit with the fixers during their repairs so they can learn as well as assist the repair coach with information or sometimes literally lend a hand. Café guests will leave with either a usable item, the information they needed to fix it at home or at least the satisfaction that they gave it their best effort. 

The Peekskill Repair Cafe is making its comeback thanks in part to the efforts of Johanne Read and the Peekskill Elks Lodge. Johanne Read is also the founder and coordinator of MendByMe free pop-up shops that allows everyone to shop with love and respect which has been a non- profit since 2019. The MendByMe organization organizes four annual events, providing over 5,000 free items of gently used or dormant clothing, shoes, and other textiles to over 450 families.

The first Peekskill Repair Cafe began in 2019 as the Herald reported. After a long hiatus as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and a reorganizing, the Peekskill Repair Cafe makes its reinauguration as a member of the local Repair Cafes. Other repair cafes in the local region occur in Yorktown, Croton and Cortlandt (which had their inaugural cafes in December 2023 and March 2024 respectively) and Ossining as the Herald has featured over the past year.

Check out this video from the very first Peekskill Repair Cafe by Mike Miner and MJM Productions via YouTube.

Repairs are free and donations are welcome to help cover the costs of café supplies and food and coffee for the guests and volunteers who are donating their time and talents to the cafe. However, at this Repair Cafe, attendees are being asked to bring a non-perishable food pantry item(s), which will be donated to the Let It Shine organization located at 137 Seventh Street, Verplanck, NY. 

For more information on the Repair Cafes, visit the Hudson Valley Repair Cafe website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Don’t forget to tell everyone at the Peekskill Repair cafe that you read about it in the Peekskill Herald.

November is the Peekskill Herald’s big annual fundraising campaign – where every dollar donated is matched, dollar for dollar, by major national funders through our partnership with News Match. Please help by donating to keep this 501c3 news organization thriving. 

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