EAST LONGMEADOW, Mass. - Getting a chance to pick up the pieces, many got to work Friday at the East Longmeadow health department’s “Fix It Clinic.”

“The whole purpose is for the volunteers and people that need things fixed,” Elizabeth Bone, East Longmeadow recycling coordinator, said. “They work together and they are not just dropping something off to get fixed, but they also learn from the experience of fixing so they know how to fix it in the future.”

Bone said Fix It clinics have been taking place around the country for over a decade.

The hope is the event will encourage the community to reuse and recycle their electronics and other household items, and create less waste.

“I grew up in the generation where you didn’t throw away anything, you saved everything,” East Longmeadow resident Julie Nichols said. “And I grew up with a family with eight children, and we never had a whole stick of gum. We were very frugal, so this is great. I like it.”

Fix It Clinic volunteers worked on many household items, from video game consoles to old furniture, and some items held plenty of memories for residents like Linda White.

“I thought this was really great because I’m into repurposing and reusing, but I also have this wonderful chair that is my grandmother’s, could’ve been my great grandmother’s,” White said. “I really don’t know the history of it, but I didn’t have the heart to throw it away.”

Bone said they planned another recycling event in June in the hopes more people will think how something could be reused before throwing them away.