Community Forum to Spotlight Peekskill’s Growing Circular Economy Movement

Retake/Remake and Mend by Me founders headline Peekskill Herald event this Saturday, June 6

By Regina Clarkin, [email protected]

June 1, 2026

The two founders of Peekskill’s “circular” economy will be among presenters at the Peekskill Herald’s third annual community forum at Dramatic Hall on Saturday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to noon. The event is free and open to the public.

“Waste Not, Want Not, A Conversation about Peekskill’s Circular Economy” is the theme of the event, where the founders will share their origin stories along with their recent growth.

Barbara Korein, founder of Retake/Remake, a creative reuse shop located at The Hat Factory, recently expanded the nonprofit’s footprint in order to have a larger space to accept donations.

Johanne Read, founder of Mendbyme, a community closet where donations from the community go back to the community, will speak about the founding of her nonprofit organization and its move to a permanent location on Peekskill’s South Street.

Courtney Williams, founder of Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions, will discuss the organization’s recent initiatives with municipalities around education on how the communities can reduce waste.

A circular economy is a system that keeps products and materials in use for as long as possible instead of throwing them away after use. A circular economy is designed to reduce waste by creating products, materials, and business practices that can be reused, repaired, recycled, or regenerated.

This approach differs from the traditional “take-make-dispose” model, where resources are extracted, turned into products, and then discarded as waste. By using fewer raw materials, designing products to last longer, and turning discarded materials into resources for new products, a circular economy helps conserve resources and reduce environmental impacts.

The Herald’s Community Forums are underwritten by funding from the New York Community Trust, Westchester Division. The forums were designed to bring together leaders in Peekskill to discuss issues of relevance to the community. The first forum in March of 2024 on the subject of affordable housing received a statewide award for community leadership from the New York State Press Association. The community forum in 2025 focused on the issue of traffic and pedestrian safety and featured civic leaders as well as city officials.

About the Contributor

Regina Clarkin, Publisher

When the Peekskill Herald weekly newspaper ceased publishing in August 2000 it was the first time in the history of the city that there wasn’t a local newspaper. The award-winning weekly was often referred to as the ‘glue’ of the community. Founded on January 9, 1986 by Regina Clarkin, Kathy Daley and Rich Zahradnik with a $7,000 credit card line, the paper filled the void created when the daily Evening Star was sold to Gannett and moved out of town. Founding publisher Regina Clarkin continued to live in the Peekskill Cortlandt area and turned her attention to other life endeavors. Through the ensuing 19 years, Clarkin was frequently stopped in town and asked when she would start up the Herald again. In January 2019, Clarkin decided it was less labor intensive to deliver a weekly blog than a print newspaper so she began posting one story a week about life in Peekskill. After a successful crowd funding campaign in 2020, the Herald was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in July of 2021. Peekskill Herald is a digital relative of the former print edition, featuring many of the favorite aspects of the beloved Peekskill Herald such as old pictures, personality profiles and well written stories about newsworthy events. Regina Clarkin is the publisher of the site.