Are you ready to stretch your muscles and your mind? The 2015 Newtown Yoga Festival gets underway Saturday, August 22, at 9 am, and runs through 4 pm, at NYA Sports & Fitness Center, at Fairfield Hills. Featuring Drs Patricia Gerbarg and Richard Brown for an afternoon Breath-Body-Mind workshop, the morning hours are a potpourri of yoga and dance for all ages. Go to www.newtownyogafestival.org for more information and to register. There is a $25 suggested donation for the day.

Perfect timing: from Yoga, you can move on to celebrating with the Botsford Fire Company. Botsford Fire Rescue’s Annual Fundraiser/Summer Bash is planned for this weekend. On Saturday, August 22, at their firehouse, members of the South Main Street-based company will be serving up hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs, and corn on the cob, which will be covered by the $10 admission (free for ages 12 and under), starting at 4 pm. Drinks will be available for a separate purchase. Live music, this year by Nashville Drive, will start at 6 pm. The modern country band performs originals and covers today’s country favorites. Proceeds will help support the 40-member, all-volunteer firehouse. The event will run until 10 pm, at Botsford Fire Rescue’s firehouse, 315 South Main Street.

You may have to split up your time that evening, though, for more fun. Chris Manfredi, who is about to begin his senior year at Newtown High School, is seeking donations to support Aaron’s Gifts from Home, an organization dedicated to the memory of Marine Navy Hospital Corpsman Aaron Ullom of Michigan. Chris is planning to join the Marine Corps Reserves, and is working with the Newtown VFW to collect items for the project started by the parents of Ullom, who was killed in action in 2011 while saving another soldier’s life. Chris’s collection is ongoing until Labor Day (items can be dropped off at the VFW Post in Tinkerfield Road daily between 11 am and 9 pm), but if you would like to say “Hello” and “Thank You” to this young man, he will be at the Post for a few hours this weekend. Chris will be at VFW Post 308 on Saturday, August 22, from 6 to 10 pm, the same hours the post will be hosting a performance by local country band Midnight Rodeo. Aaron’s Gifts From Home provides necessities and comforts of home to troops serving in the military. The number one requested item is beef jerky. Requests also include, candy, bagged chips, cookies, sport drinks, drink mixes, baby wipes, disposable razors, toothbrushes and paste, deodorant, hand warmers, cotton socks and underwear, movies, video games, music, electronics, and reading material. Any monetary donations will be used to purchase needed items, said Chris, and to offset shipping costs.

Maybe you missed out on the hardback version of Newtowner Elissa Altman’s book, Poor Man’s Feast, published in 2013; or maybe you love the feel of a paperback in your hands over that of the heftier hardback book. You’ll be happy to know, then, that Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and The Art of Simple Cooking is now out in paperback. It’s a feast for the soul, and contains soul-satisfying recipes, as well. Look for Elissa’s book at Byrd’s Books in Bethel, Books on the Common in Ridgefield, and other local bookstores, as well as at Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. (If you want to sample her fare, check out Elissa’s blog at www.poormansfeast.com.) Congratulations, once again, to Elissa.

We hear from Stephanie Schneiderman of Sandy Hook’s Biscotti, Etc that she has another hit on her hands. Stephanie has introduced the new Cinnamon Toast biscotti at area farmers’ markets, and says they have been an immediate success. I can almost taste that biscotti dipped in my cup of cream now… and this makes selecting from her array of tasty biscotti that much harder.

I’m sure Knettie and Flip Archard, longtime Sandy Hookers and recent residents of Heritage Village, did not think they’d escape the summer heat by zipping off to Phoenix, Ariz. this week, but I have a feeling the heat they encountered stepping off the plane there at 11 pm was even more oppressive than they imagined. “The temp was 118 degrees!” Knettie tells me. Sure hope their flip-flops don’t melt onto the sidewalks there.

Maybe there’ll be some smiles while students are waiting for the bus to pull up to the stop for the first day of school, next Thursday, August 27. Don’t forget to snap a photo of your (smiling or otherwise) students and e-mail them to education reporter Eliza Hallabeck, at eliza@thebee.com, by Monday, August 31. The photos may be included in that week’s print edition of The Bee or in an online slideshow on our website, newtownbee.com.

This should put some smiles on a few faces: newsweek.com has ranked Newtown High School as 308 out of its top 500 high schools in the country. It was one of 15 Connecticut high schools that made the list, and it was the eighth Connecticut high school in the ranking. According to Newsweek it has been ranking schools to “recognize the achievements of the best public high schools in the United States for college readiness” for more than a decade. Newsweek’s “America’s Top High Schools” list, ranks the schools based on performance.

While you’re snapping photos of those happy back-to-schoolers next week, think about sharing some of your local pictures with Bee readers via Instagram, at #viewfromnewtown.

I have my own view from Newtown, and I’ll be happy to share it with you next week. Just… Read me again.