NARROWSBURG — A repair café is a local meeting place that brings people and their broken items together with repair coaches/volunteers who have the expertise to fix them. The first Tusten repair café will be held on Saturday, January 26 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Tusten Town Hall located at 210 Bridge St., Narrowsburg.

Town Councilwoman Jill Padua organized the event along with Councilwoman Brandi Merolla and Chamber of Commerce President T. Martin Higgins. Padua heard about the concept of a repair café a few years ago from her friend who started one in Warwick that was very successful. So Padua decided to start one in Narrowsburg.

She brought up the idea to the town board and they were in favor of doing it. Padua and the committee put out the word for volunteers and were shocked by the response. They soon filled up the schedule with people.

The volunteers will be on hand to help anyone who comes in to fix or repair an item or offer advice. The services offered will include computers, sewing (machine and hand stitching), electrical/mechanical, furniture/woodworker, knitting/crocheting, house plant advice, reading table from the Tusten-Cochecton Library (will bring fix-it books), costume jewelry, bicycle repair and DIY garment fixes.

One of the objectives of a repair café is to be environmentally friendly. It advocates the philosophy of “reduce, reuse, recycle” by keeping items instead of throwing them away into landfills.

For Padua, this really appealed to her. “In my life I'm such an environmentalist that it just made sense,” she said. “It keeps things out of the landfill. These days it's such a throw-away world.”

Also, people will learn some skills needed to repair things. It's a more hands-on approach, rather than just dropping something off at a shop. And in today's world, there aren't many repair shops left.

“It's about community,” Padua said. The committee is still looking for volunteers for the upcoming repair cafés. They are also looking for someone to run a kids “take-it-apart table,” where children take apart a broken item to learn how it was made.

The next sessions will be held on April 27, July 20 and November 9 at the town hall. If you are interested in being a volunteer or for any questions contact Padua at 845-252-6783 or email jpadua@frontier.com.