b'Sometimesitjusttakesconsulta-tionwithoneofthefixerstomake anitemserviceable.Gravesrecalls when a resident brought in a bouncy housewithahole. Torepairit,the entire house had to be inflated. Once patched, the bouncy house was ready to use, thus diverting one more item fromalandfill.Thesemomentsand thecommunitybuildingthathap-pens between the volunteers and the attendees bring joy to Graves. Natu-rally, people have a story with every item they bring in. The environment is chatty and amiable.Graves also thrives on spreading the word on the Repair Caf and sharing resources to help other towns join the movement. Although she would like to expand the Repair Caf to twice a year, her ultimate vision is to have one every weekend in our region. She points to the Hudson Valley Repair Cafs with more than 60 locations running events in the Hudson Valley, Catskills, Capi-tal Region and North Country.ThenextSOMARepairCafis Sunday, May 19, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Clockwise from top: (L-R) Stella Geller is thrilled The Baird Community Center, 5 Meadto have her robe hemmed. Mike Schloff Street in South Orange. For more in- sharpens knives. This boy is hopeful his vehicle formation or to schedule an item forcan be fixed. Joyce Andrasz repairs jewelry. Bill Haskins pieces together a broken item. repair, email soma2towns@gmail.com orThis fixer works his magic repairing an alligator call 973-558-0863.lamp.feature story /39'