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Students give back during holiday season

Students give back during holiday season
Heather Dinneen, the Social Services Director in Cornwall, spoke briefly after receiving the Cornwall Food Pantry’s donation from the FFA. Photo by Hunter O. Lyle

FALLS VILLAGE — During the season of giving, the Housatonic Valley Regional High School chapter of the National FFA Organization donated money to multiple local nonprofit organizations.

Every year, the regional high school hosts a Holiday Store, where students sell hundreds of Christmas trees and wreaths along with other seasonal merchandise, to raise money for trips to national conventions, competitions and other FFA sponsored activities.

This year, the chapter chose to donate $1,500 to five organizations: the Corner Food Pantry in Lakeville, Fishes and Loaves Food Pantry in North Canaan, the Cornwall Food Pantry, the Kent Food Bank and the Jane Lloyd Fund, an organization that’s help cancer patients in the Northwest Corner.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of having these funds,” said FFA President Justine Allyn, “is that it allows us to reach out and give back to a community that gives so much to us.”

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Sharon voters split opioid settlement funds between ambulance, regional programs

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With memoir...the character only knows what the character knows.
Janice Erlbaum

In “Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir,” published in 2006, author Janice Erlbaum wrote about the years after she left her family’s Brooklyn apartment at 15, moving through shelters, group homes, squats, clubs and the streets of 1980s New York while somehow continuing to attend high school. The book has sold more than 75,000 copies, stayed in print for two decades and continues to find new readers.

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Spencertown’s 21st Festival Of Books
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On Saturday, Sept. 5, the Spencertown Academy Arts Center in Spencertown, New York, will host its 21st annual Book Festival.

With over 20,000 gently used books, CDs, DVDs and vinyl donated by the community, it took volunteers 45 days — and an estimated 750 hours —to set the whole thing up. Most of that time was spent sorting through the vast troves of donations and organizing them by category.

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A scene from last year’s Dance Barn.

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Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.