Organizers of the Sunday in the Country Food Drive are working hard to raise as much money as possible to buy full turkey dinners before the holidays for those in need.“Fundraising is slow,” said food drive founder and organizer “NASCAR” Dave MacMillan. But his group is proceeding undaunted. Even if they aren’t able to match the bounty of past years, they will do the best they can. This year that might mean getting turkeys to the 16 food banks around the Tri-state region that participate in the Sunday in the Country Food Drive —but without the extra fixings.“I would say this is the toughest year so far,” said MacMillan, who started the annual food drive 18 years ago. The economy is tough, he said. There are more nonprofits and more people in need. And donors are tightening their own belts. According to MacMillan, at this time last year the food drive had $30,000; this year, it has about $12,000. What that probably will mean is that instead of providing the 620 full Thanksgiving meals it did last year, which included 12- to 14-pound turkeys with potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, soup and pumpkin pie mix, the food drive might only be able to provide 620 turkeys with no sides.“There’s no question there’s a great need,” MacMillan added, citing the Roe Jan food pantry in Copake as an example. “We typically give them 50 dinners, but then I realized they give out 147 Thanksgiving dinners, so they get some from other sources. I didn’t realize they served so many, and there’s no way we could supply them all. They just appreciate the 50 they get from us. But there’s a big need out there.”Sunday in the Country (which is named after a radio program MacMillan used to host) also provides Christmas dinners to food pantries throughout the Tri-state region. MacMillan is hopeful that by December word will be out that the program is tight on funds, which will generate more capital to buy food for those in need. He estimated that “we’ll need to serve about 580 dinners for Christmas.”To help raise money for this year’s holiday meals, students in the CAPS program at Maplebrook School in Amenia recently collected money door-to-door from area businesses. MacMillan said he’s been working with CAPS for six years and it’s been a wonderful relationship.“Personally, I don’t care if it’s been $100 or $100,000,” he said. “I want to thank Maplebrook School and the CAPS program for what they’ve done for us. It’s one of the highlights of the food drive. I look forward to it every year and thank them for getting involved — it makes my Thanksgiving.”After all is said and done, MacMillan said the reason why he puts so much work into the food drive, and so much of his personal energy and dedication, is quite simple.“I don’t like to see anybody hungry,” he said. “If we can fill bellies, that’s what it’s all about.”To send a donation to the food drive, which is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization (so all donations are tax deductible), mail it to Sunday in the Country Food Drive, PO Box 789, Millerton, NY 12546.
Latest News
Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
Provided
Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
