MALTA, N.Y. — After a successful debut last fall, the Malta Repair Café is back, ready to give broken household items a second life and bring neighbors together in the process.
“We were really pleasantly surprised with the response from the community and the turnout that we had at the Malta event last year,” Executive Director of Sustainable Saratoga, which hosts the Repair Cafés, Kelsey Trudell shared. “Being in a new space, it’s always kind of a question mark as to what attendance will be like, but we had great attendance.
“A lot of our volunteer coaches were individuals who also volunteer at the Saratoga Springs Repair Café, so it was a lot of familiar faces and we had all of our usual sort of repair categories – we had textile, jewelry and mechanical electrical repairs and we’re hoping to start to advertise book repairs, which is something that’s new and that we’re going to be trying out at both locations this year.”
The first Malta Repair Café, held in Oct. 2025, at the Innovation Center at Saratoga, located at 6 Old Stonebreak Road in Malta, brought together 45 community members and repaired 36 everyday items thanks to the skill and generosity of the volunteer repair coaches. Based on the enthusiastic response, the Malta Repair Café is set to return on Saturday, Feb. 21, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Innovation Center for another free event open to the public.
“The Innovation Center is proud to host the Malta Repair Café and support an event that brings people together to share skills, reduce waste and strengthen our community,” Beth Moeller from The Innovation Center at Saratoga shared in a press release. “Seeing neighbors help one another while giving everyday items a second life is exactly the kind of innovation we love to foster.”
Repair Cafés are hands-on, community-powered events where knowledgeable volunteers assist attendees in diagnosing and fixing broken items while also sharing skills and confidence along the way. Attendees are invited to bring items from home, such as electrical items include, but are not limited to:
• Electrical items: Lamps; hair dryers; kitchen appliances; plug, switch and power cord repairs; clock; vacuum cleaners; fans; games & toys
• Wooden items: Furniture (chairs, small tables); toys & doll furniture; picture or mirror frames
• Clothes: Replace buttons; hem pants/skirts; replace zippers; patch holes or tears; minor alterations
• Textiles and leather: Repair blankets & quilts, handbags; dolls or stuffed animals
• Jewelry: Replace clasps, restringing, gluing
• Computers: Software installation, basic diagnostic & troubleshooting
• Misc items: Rewire frames and mirrors, repair broken ceramics, fix things with stripped out screws, book mending, library archivist
The goal is to be more than just a fix-it event, as the Repair Café is about reducing waste, saving money, and rediscovering the value of repair. By extending the life of everyday objects and keeping them out of landfills, Repair Cafés help build a more sustainable community—one repair at a time. If you can carry it in, the volunteers at the event will do their best to fix it.
“What’s really great about Repair Cafés is it’s not just about fixing broken items, of course, that is what happens at Repair Cafés, but the bigger picture thinking is that we’re really trying to build community, and build community around this right to repair,” Trudell explained. “It’s getting people to think differently about the items in their home, or the things that they’re buying every day, and sort of thinking differently about our stuff — giving more life more things, instead of just throwing them away and buying something new. So, the next time the new phone comes out, or new electronics, instead people think about the longevity of our items and building community around that idea of conscious consumption.
“It’s really fun to see people light up when things like an antique clock that they’ve had in the family forever is now working again. So it’s just a really fun event all around.”
Along with the Malta Repair Café, Sustainable Saratoga will be hosting five other Repair Cafés throughout the year, including two more at the Innovation Center at Saratoga from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on June 28 and Saturday Oct. 24. There will also be three Repair Cafés at the Saratoga Springs Public Library from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Dutcher Community Room on March 29, Sept. 13, and Dec. 5.
“Sustainable Saratoga is doubling the number of Repair Cafés we co-host to six in 2026,” Sustainable Saratoga Programs Manager Caroline Rothaug, who is one of the organizers, said in a release. “What could be better than a day of people who love to fix things working with the owners of broken items to put them back in working order? Six Days!”
And while she notes that doubling the number of events will pose a challenge, Trudell shared that after the great reception and turn out the previous Repair Cafés have had they deiced to take it on and provide more opportunities to breathe new life into their household items.
“Every single event we host is really well attended, and we get a great turnout of volunteer coaches who show up,” Trudell explained. “We feel like the need is there to host six and doing Saratoga as one location and Malta as the other location it feels really balanced. We’re kind of filling a need in both, Northern Saratoga County and southern Saratoga County.
“We’re targeting two different geographical areas and being able to cover more ground and offer more opportunities for repair – and people have been really excited about it.”
More info about the Repair Cafés, vist https://sustainablesaratoga.org/projects/zero-waste/repair-cafe-saratoga-springs/
Glenn Griffith – Medianews Group,
Volunteers work as a team at a previous Repair Cafe to fix a broken lamp. (FILE)