The Repair Cafe of the Hudson Valley and Catskills will be featured on NBC-TV’s The Today Show, scheduled to air on Friday, April 21, 2023 at 8:30 a.m.
Earth Day watchers will see first-hand how community members come together with tools, refreshments and a creative spirit to help each other fix “beloved but broken objects” as Repair Cafe volunteers will actually be on-site at 30 Rockefeller Plaza with a truckload of tools and objects to be fixed.
“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to share the Repair Cafe movement on such a big platform. There are a lot of cafes in the U.S already, but we really hope this inspires people in every state to start them,” project coordinator Suzie Fromer said.
“The Today Show” discovered Repair Cafe through a local repair event in Tarrytown, NY, one of 45 locations from Schenectady to the New York City border hosting regular fixing sessions for the community. In addition to capturing video and conducting interviews locally, the show producers have invited a troupe of seasoned fixers to demonstrate what they do right on the set during the broadcast.
Today’s producer actually pursued Repair Cafe as part of his climate change beat.
“It can be challenging to cover the climate crisis as most reports focus weather events and catastrophic projections, but stories of resilience and community, such as this one highlighting Repair Cafes, can really connect with an audience eager to hear about effective action and adaptation. This was a wonderfully wholesome story,” Carlos Perez Beltran said.
In 2022, waste was 12% of New York State’s carbon footprint, according to Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2022 State of the State address. Repair Cafe of the Hudson Valley and Catskills has kept over 3,000 items out of the landfill – which for the region is located at Seneca Meadows, hundreds of miles away.
The Repair Cafe has taken off as a community project with distinctive commitment and creativity on the part of volunteers. Participants with repaired objects are photographed with colorful “I Fixed It!” signs. Cafes are held at libraries, church basements, senior and community centers, and sometimes at maker spaces with tool libraries and other equipment to encourage more crafty behavior. International in scope, the Repair Cafe movement is the subject of several books including Repair Revolution coauthored by Hudson Valley Repair Cafe founder, the late John Wackman, and Elizabeth Knight.