In 2018, literary agent Deirdre Mullane brought some items to the Repair Cafe in Beacon, New York. She sat down at John’s woodworking table and said, “I’ve been watching what goes on here. I think it’s wonderful, and I think there’s a book in this.” She recognized that repair is about social change, and we couldn’t have found a better shepherd for what turned out to be a rather massive undertaking. We are grateful for Deidre’s encouragement, enthusiasm, and knowledge of the publishing industry.
To be paired with the right publisher was just as important. Jason Gardner, executive editor at New World Library, recognized the significance of this movement and championed this book. We are thankful for the attention and professionalism, as well as the support of the whole New World Library publishing team — especially Kristen Cashman, Tracy Cunningham, Tona Pearce Myers, and Monique Muhlenkamp — and copyeditor Patricia Heinicke.
Our book grew out of months and months of research, interviews, and communications with more than one hundred people across the U.S., Canada, and the world who are also committed to the repair revolution. We’re indebted to everyone who took the time to share their stories, insights, and resources. We’ve done our very best to accurately report what they told us.
John Wackman
When Elizabeth and I undertook this book, we knew we wanted to include as many voices as possible and represent repair initiatives in every part of the United States. We wrote a questionnaire and sent it to every Repair Cafe in the country, a long list of Fixit Clinics, and as many Tool Libraries as we could find, with this message: “Here’s the way we see it: This is our book and YOUR book. We ask you to share this questionnaire with all of your fixers and menders, your welcome table team, coffee makers, and brownie bakers — anyone and everyone who shows up to build community and keep things out of the landfill.”
We are grateful to everyone who responded.
Thanks to the repair organizers who have shared so much. They include Ray Pfau in Bolton, Massachusetts; Don Fick in North Carolina’s Research Triangle; Don Shriner in Ellensburg, Washington; Jeanette Nakada and Larry James in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Thanks to all the places and partners who have championed community repair: the churches, libraries, town and village halls, and community and senior centers.
To Pastor Better Sohm and Margaret Howe at New Paltz United Methodist Church, who in a heartbeat said, “Yes, please! We’d love to have that here.” I am so grateful to all our dedicated repair coaches and volunteers in New Paltz, where this all started for me, including those who were the first core group: Ken Fix It, Wolf Bravo, Felicia Casey, Helen Karsten, Dawn Elliott, Barbara Lane, Leah Stukes, Renee Rosenberg, Rob Greene, Frank Burnham, and Patrick Murphy.
The grassroots organizers who helped get repair off the ground in the Hudson Valley: the New Paltz Climate Action Coalition, especially Ann and Dan Guenther, Miriam Strouse, and Kimiko Link; Kingston Transition, especially Gai and Dimitri Galitzine; and Woodstock Transition, especially Caroline and Kirk Ritchey.
For bringing the books in: the Mid-Hudson Library System and my local bookstore, Inquiring Minds (thank you, Rebekkah and Jai).
To our colleagues in the Right to Repair movement: Gay Gordon-Byrne, Nathan Proctor, Kyle Wiens, and Peter Mui.
The staff of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation: Amy Bloomfield, Terry Laibach, and Dazzle Eckblad.
To the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, and Laura Weiland for welcoming our work.
To the incredible group of educators at the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island. Their exhibition Repair and Design Futures widened our understanding of everything repair can mean.
To the Good Work Institute, which deepened my understanding of the economic and social challenges the repair revolution aspires to address and introduced me to so many others doing good work.
This book is focused on repair in the United States. We have not been able to write much about the incredible global movement of repairers we have corresponded with, primarily through the portal of Instagram and the Restart Project. (Hello, Purna in Bengaluru, Fern in Toronto, Pierre in Paris, Ugo in London!) We’d love to see others write books about the repair revolution from the cultural perspective of every continent.
To my brother, Chris, and sister, Anne, with whom I shared memories of our mom and dad.
And finally, thank you to my darling companion, Holly.
Elizabeth Knight
I would like to thank Eleanor Nicholson Knight, my mother, for inviting me and my sister, Amy, to help her set up the library on the U.S. Air Force Base in Taranto, Italy. Mom didn’t mind when we girls wandered off to read a book instead of shelve it.
I would like to thank my husband, Roger Moss, because whenever I say, “I think this community needs…,” he always says, “Go do it!” and shows up to help.
I would like to thank my friend Deanne Singer, who always says, “You can do it,” followed by “And you know, we could do…”
I would like to thank my friend Sharon Halper, who says, “We’re not obligated to save the world, but we each must help the person at the end of our hand.”
I’d like to thank Jerry Fischetti, who was the first person to raise his hand and volunteer to be a repair coach. Jerry celebrated his eighty-eighth birthday fixing things for many people he didn’t even know at Orange County, New York’s very first Repair Cafe.
I would like to thank Sustainable Warwick and Community2gether for sponsoring our Repair Cafe, now in its fourth year of community service.
I would like to thank all the cheerful, dedicated, talented, generous volunteers, from at least nine different towns and two states, who have enriched my life by their example. You give me hope and make me laugh.
I’d like to thank the hundreds of people who have walked through the Warwick Senior Center doors and trusted us with their beloved but broken items and their stories about what those things mean to them. Now they matter to me too.