Columbia NORTHEAST (NE)
The ColumbiaNE Repair Cafe emerged as a project of the New Lebanon Climate Smart Communities Task Force, which was connected via Zero Waste Columbia to other CSC groups in Chatham and Austerlitz who were also planning Repair Cafe events. From there the collaboration quickly expanded to include the village of East Nassau, in the eastern part of neighboring Rensselaer County. The Columbia NE Repair Cafe is grateful for the support of the Tool Shed Exchange and Lending Library in Hudson NY.
Now two years old, we followed up on our successes in 2021 and 2022 with a great set of cafes in 2023, one in each of our four towns, with a total of approximately 200+ visitors and as many as 500 repairs and consultations. One of our most successful events included a team of high school students from the Darrow School in New Lebanon. We always welcome new volunteers, whether as fixers, aka repair coaches or experts, general volunteers for our events, or organizers who can commit to monthly meetings. We are currently working on confirming our calendar for 2024, but we know we will have at least four events, one in each town, including the Columbia County Climate Carnival at the Columbia Country Fairgrounds on September 14, 2024.
We have a strong bench of talented and generous fixers who have fixed well over 300 items in the past year and a half - from the old (a 1938 toaster and several 19th century mantel clocks) to the new (a 3D printer), from the practical (the strap of a horse blanket and more than one backpack) to the exotic and decorative (a glass whale and a wooden pipe from the Middle East). We also fix bikes, sharpen knives, repair lamps, give gardening advice, glue ceramics and wood and plastic, find a way to repair wooden furniture from chairs to chests to trays. Our textile and fiber fixers can knit, darn, crochet, hand sew and sew on a machine, whether you need a patch or a seam or a zipper. We even repair lawn mowers and tune up sewing machines and we are working to get some younger people involved and to expand our tech section.
Our group’s mantra is “It will be great!” And it always is. Not only do we all have a good time catching up with or getting to know our neighbors, but we love keeping things with some life left in them out of the landfill. We’re happy as organizers to see satisfied visitors; our fixers love fixing things; our visitors are ecstatic. We hope you’ll come see us.
To find updates, visit us here or on our Facebook page.
Horologist Paul Borst volunteering as a clock repair coach at East Nassau
LocationS
The ColumbiaNE Repair Cafe is a collaboration between four different municipalities and rotates between the following locations. Please see the calendar or the ‘next’ button below for the location of our next event.
AUSTERLITZ
CHATHAM
EAST NASSAU
NEW LEBANON