Get Ready for Winter at the Canaan Repair Cafe

CANAAN, NY (November 2026)-- Winter is coming. Do you need to fix your snow blower, darn your sweater, sharpen your knives, repair your bike, fix that clock your grandfather left you, sew the rip in your pants, re-rivet your pocketbook, fix your broken chair, repair a piece of jewelry or rewire your lamp, but don't know how to do it?

Come to Canaan’s Repair Cafe on Saturday, November 14 from 10am to 2pm at the Canaan, NY Firehouse, 2126 NY Route 295. Volunteer fixers are available to work their magic on your broken items, at no cost to you. They might also tell you that it can't be fixed or that you need to buy a part to have it fixed. But they also might teach you how to fix it yourself!

The Columbia NE Repair Café is a collaboration of the Climate Smart Community Committees of the towns of New Lebanon, Canaan, Chatham and Austerlitz, and the Village of East Nassau, with support from NYSERDA and the New York State Climate Smart Communities program. They sponsor five Repair Cafes, one each year in the towns they represent. Since 2021 the network has repaired 1692 items (242 lamps, 475 knives sharpened, 349 items of clothing sewn, darned or knit, 85 pieces of furniture repaired and other leather, mechanical, motor, small electronic, clock, bike, gluing, and jewelry repairs) and saved community members over $25,000.

The Repair Café movement was initiated by Martine Postma, who organized the very first Repair Café in Amsterdam, Holland on October 18, 2009. There are now over 2,500 Repair Cafés worldwide. We believe the first Repair Cafe in this area was January 19, 2013 in the basement of St. Stephen's Church, in Pittsfield. The NE Columbia Repair Cafe had its first event on October 23, 2021 in New Lebanon.

Repair Cafes help reduce waste, promote repair skills, teach us all to be more self-sufficient, allow us to come together in a non-consumerist way, forge bonds of friendship through mutual dependency, and make our community a better place to live. And, they are fun. This is a great way to meet your neighbors. Refreshments are available, adding to the friendly feeling of the event. You will probably leave with a renewed faith in humanity.

Visitors may bring up to two items per person, so that as many people as possible can be helped and clothing or textiles, to be mended, must be clean. Fixers work alongside the owner of the item, so guests are asked to stay with their belongings.

For more information, look at the Columbia NE Repair Café page on Facebook or call Becky at 518-929-4664. The Repair Cafe in Canaan is the last one of the 2026 season. The 2027 season will begin in late spring.