The Columbia Northeast Repair Café comes to Chatham on Saturday, September 26, from 10 am to 2 pm at the Chatham Fire Department, 2 Hoffman Street, Chatham, NY 12037. Volunteer fixers will sharpen knives, tune up bicycles, mend clothing and repair antique clocks, lamps, string instruments, lawn mowers and snow blowers. They will also 3D print replacement parts, all free of charge.

A small army of menders will be on hand, working in cloth, yarn and leather. Machine sewers and hand sewers will work alongside darners, knitters and a leather goods specialist. That means the torn seam, the sweater with a moth hole, the jacket zipper that gave up, the hem that came down, the bag strap that tore loose: all of it can be looked at, and most of it can be fixed while you watch, at no charge.

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.

For more information about what can and cannot be repaired, find the Columbia NE Repair Café on Facebook or email columbianerepaircafe@gmail.com.

About the Repair Café movement: Repair Cafés began in the Netherlands in 2009 and have since spread to thousands of communities worldwide. Volunteer fixers share their skills and tools to help neighbors mend household items rather than discard them.