Monday was a special day for your hometown newspaper. On St Patrick’s Day 30 years ago, The Newtown Bee launched its website. Not only that, ours was the first newspaper in the state to present constantly updated news and information to its readers. As then-Managing Editor Curtiss Clark wrote, “At the time, the only other newspaper in the state with an online presence was The Hartford Courant, which maintained a few informational web pages that didn’t change much from week to week. The Bee, on the other hand, was committed from the outset to update its web pages continuously with current news and information, a strategy that has since been adopted by virtually every newspaper on the Internet.”

The first web pages for The Bee were produced on Curtiss’s laptop. In a special feature for The New England Press Association Bulletin a few months later, Curtiss wrote: “In its long history, The Newtown Bee has acquired a reputation locally as being a kind of General Store of Information. We get calls from people wanting to know if the Blakes have moved out of town, whether the recycling center takes cereal boxes, or even the speed limit on Lake Zoar. We have this reputation because we generally know the answers to these kinds of questions — and if we don’t know, we can find out pretty fast. We are reliable, honest, and personable. And like the General Store, where these virtues also still have currency, we’re considered quaint and old-fashioned. So when The Newtown Bee announced in its old-fashioned, quaint, front page editorial a few weeks ago that we could now be found on the Internet’s World Wide Web, people didn’t know what to make of it. It was like seeing Grandma on water skis.” So Happy Anniversary to us!

Monday was unfortunately also a sad day for this office I call my second home. We learned that morning that former Bee Kate Sasanoff had died unexpectedly a few days earlier. Kate was an employee here for about a decade, working in the front office of The Newtown Bee and then the advertising office of Antiques and The Arts Weekly. About five years ago Kate shifted gears and went from one local institution to another local institution, accepting a position at C.H. Booth Library. She found a new niche that was so perfect for her, working as the adult programming coordinator within a new circle of friends at 25 Main Street. We still heard from and worked with her regularly, thanks to the overlap of letting us know when something new and exciting was happening just up the hill and around the corner from us. “Sassy” was a bubbly, exuberant, artistic woman with a generous, grateful heart. We learned of her death on Monday, and couldn’t help but share a few of our favorite stories about the petite woman with curls that bounced every time she spoke.

Jeff Williams was close last week when he shared details of his dating-then-wedding anniversary story. Jeff met his future wife Justine on a blind date March 11, 1989 — he got that part correct while sharing his love story with us — but the couple then dated for seven years (not six, as Jeff thought until last week) before they were married. I’m not sure if Jeff is still in the doghouse over that little snafu, but I am sure of one thing: he’ll never get those dates wrong again.

The next two Saturday mornings will offer special shopping opportunities for anyone visiting The VNA Thrift Shop. As written about a few months ago, the shop donates proceeds from one Saturday each month — usually the third or fourth weekend — to a local nonprofit. The proceeds from March 22 sales will be donated to the Best Buddies program, and then the proceeds from March 29 will be donated to Unified Sports. The VNA Thrift Shop entrance is from the lower rear parking lot of Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street. Current hours are 9 am-noon Saturday.

Last month the Sunday School children at Christ the King Lutheran Church learned about The Good Samaritan. As part of that lesson plan, they were presented with various charitable ideas. Sunday School educator Elizabeth Lowery shared with me that the children decided to help animals with their efforts. This month the children have been collecting donations for Newtown Animal Control Shelter from within their congregation. They have also extended an invitation to the entire community to help with that effort, and hope to see many people on Saturday, March 29. From 9 am until noon that day, children will be joined by members of the church’s youth group, and some adults, for their final push in the weeks-long project: A Newtown Animal Shelter Drive. Donations of pet food, treats, toys, cleaning supplies (bleach, paper towels, sprays), and old blankets and towels will all be accepted in the church parking lot — 85 Mt Pleasant Road — that morning.

We received word this week that the 2nd Annual Friends of Edmond Town Hall Gala is being postponed. The celebration to continue fundraising for the magnificent building at 45 Main Street doesn’t have a new date yet, but you know I’ll be ready to share that information with you once it’s available.

The beautiful sanctuary of Trinity Episcopal Church will look different for at least the next few months, while the magnificent stained glass window that has dominated its eastern wall for over a century receives a well deserved update. The scene depicting Christ’s Ascension had been in place since the stone church was constructed in 1870. I had the opportunity to walk across the road on Tuesday while workers from Stained Glass Resources were taking out all the panels that make up the design. It was fascinating to watch them do that painstaking process. Each panel was so carefully removed by hand, then taped up and packed away, but not before a wood panel was created to replace each window that came out. Those wood panels were installed, and then storm windows were reinstalled over them, so that any rain, snow, leaves, etc will be kept out of the church while the stained glass is cleaned and repaired. One Stained Glass Resources employee seemed very happy to answer questions about the work when church members and other curious passersby stopped at the Main Street building on Tuesday while he and the others were there.

The restoration work will take months, our new friend confirmed. The timeline will fully depend on what they find when work begins on each panel, available labor, and even material lead time. Once that work is finished, Trinity Church members will then have the window frame repainted by Artech Church Interiors in Woodbury. I can’t wait to see what everything looks like when all the pieces are put back together later this year.

Spring returned at 5:01 am Thursday. I can’t say I was awake to welcome the arrival, but I probably stirred a little in my sleep. The Old Farmer’s Almanac this week reminded me that the word “equinox” comes from the Latin words aequus, or equal, and nox, or night. So on the Equinox, the length of day and night is nearly equal in all parts of the world.

I am nearly equal in my love for naps and my love for sharing news. I hope your love of reading the news I gather will lead you to return next week — maybe after enjoying a nap or two of your own — when you can … read me again.