Repair Cafe Comes to Bedford
Saturday, September 26, 2020, the Town of Bedford welcomes its first Repair Café in the Bedford Hills train station from 10am-12pm. The launching will be part of the Climate Week activities organized by Bedford2030.
Bedford 2030 aspires to make the Cafe a regular event in the future, alongside the Take It Or Leave It Shed. Both are ongoing volunteer efforts to curb our waste and to keep our old and/or broken things from being disposed of.
There are over 1.500 Repair Cafés worldwide and all are set up to be free meeting places where visitors bring their broken items and can, together with specialists, make repairs.
If you have nothing to repair, you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee or you can lend a hand with someone else’s repair job.
Repair work has become scarce. With today’s production process it is often cheaper to buy new, and only few companies encourage repairs on their products, or have the parts for them.
Repair Cafes are a component in a greater movement, which also includes The Right to Repair, which promotes manufacturers to provide the necessary documents and information to allow anyone to repair their products, and iFixit, an online site that teaches people how to fix almost anything.
Although the repairs at the Repair Cafe are done for free, professional carpenters, computer specialists and seamstresses are encouraged to join the Repair Cafe and hand out their business cards. Donations for materials used by the volunteer repairers are also welcome at the Cafe.
The first Repair Cafe will be somewhat unusual. Due to COVID-19 the size of the cafe is intentionally small and will concentrate on the repair of clothes and linens. The Community Center of Northern Westchester will have seamstresses set up from their sewing program to do repairs and show visitors how it is done.
Bob Wilson, who has been visiting the Hudson Valley Cafes with his wife Sarah, will bring his tool box and help with small repairs of household goods like non-functioning lamps or wobbly legs on a stool.
If you like repairing things, whether it is dolls, chairs or even repotting plants, please offer your help and contact info@bedford2030.org. The Bedford Repair Cafe is expected to take place two to three times a year. Visit The Hudson Valley Repair Cafe online to see the agenda for the neighboring Repair Cafes.
