Time is getting short for readers who would like to help Women Involved in Newtown (WIN) in the annual partnership with the Town’s Department of Human Services to help connect Newtown households in need with those who want to give during Thanksgiving time. Deadline for the 2024 Thanksgiving Basket program is November 24. For this Thanksgiving Basket program, adopted households receive everything they need for a Thanksgiving dinner, additional everyday groceries, household needs and pet supplies. Anyone who would like to adopt a household is invited to contact WIN at womeninnewtown@gmail.com. Financial donations to put toward those “baskets” are always welcome as well. WIN is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization so donations are tax-deductible and 100% will go directly to those in need. WIN has a PayPal account that can accept those donations, and then use them to fill in where something may be needed for one family or another. Checks and grocery store gift cards are also welcome. Contact WIN through its website or mail them to WIN Thanksgiving Baskets, PO Box 286, Newtown CT 06470.

As mentioned last week, Newtown’s firefighters will also be collecting for the food pantry this month. The 2024 Fill The Fire Truck Food Drive will return to its two traditional locations the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Members of Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue, Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company and Newtown Hook & Ladder will again be in front of Big Y World Class Market on Queen Street on November 23, while members of Botsford Fire Rescue and Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Company will be at Sand Hill Plaza, 228 South Main Street. This year’s event will run from 9 am to 1 pm — concluding one hour earlier than previous years — but everything else remains the same: donations of turkeys, food, toiletries, pet food, cash and gift cards will all be accepted, and delivered immediately to the food pantry right after the collection.

If you’re planning to participate in the upcoming Turkey Trot, (a) yay you! and (b) there’s a new element for those who will be picking up bibs and T-shirts on Tuesday and Wednesday. Organizers this year would like to help local residents facing food insecurity. They are asking those who will be picking up their race bibs and T-shirts on Tuesday and Wednesday to bring a donation for FAITH Food Pantry with them. Breakfast foods are the big request, including peanut butter, jams, granola bars, oatmeal, cereal, pancake mix, syrups etc.

If you’re on the fence about earning your stuffing on Thanksgiving, you have until 7:15 that morning to make the leap. Registration for the 15th annual event is available until then, just 30 minutes before about 1,500 people will run and/or walk through the center of town. If it helps, the course continues to follow the new route introduced in 2019, which eliminated that nasty hill on Schoolhouse Hill Road between Wendover and Main Street. Everyone now starts from Newtown Middle School and makes a loop within the immediate area, staying on gentle hills through local neighborhoods before returning to 11 Queen Street. The full course is 5K, while the run/walk is 2½K, or 1.6 miles. Registration is $45 per person until November 20, $50 after that. Register online at runsignup.com/Race/CT/Newtown/NewtownTurkeyTrot. Regardless of when you register, proceeds will benefit C.H. Booth Library.

Meanwhile, Thanksgiving is a holiday filled with food, family, and yes, some myths that many of us have not wanted to think about. Most of us have grown up with the idea that the Pilgrims were met by happy Indians, who simply taught them to tend the land and then sat down with them for a great celebratory feast. Apparently this legend grew from one paragraph of one settler’s journal. Thanksgiving has become a day to celebrate family and yes, give thanks for what we have in our lives. It can and should be a very good time to connect with family and friends over a hearty meal. As we continue to learn, however, there is a lot more behind the day’s history and not all of it is easy to hear or accept. Newtown Allies For Change would like everyone to consider the bigger history of Thanksgiving, especially from the point of view of Indigenous people, and is planning an online program with that focus. “Thanksgiving: Separating Truth From Fiction” is a 60-minute discussion planned for Thursday, November 21, at 7:30 pm. If you’d like to participate from the comfort of your place of choice, find NAFC on Facebook (@newtownalliesforchange) and scroll to the Event listing. If you don’t have Facebook or prefer to join the Zoom directly, contact NAFC at takeaction@newtownallies.org.

I’ll have my paws crossed next week for former Newtown resident Faith Vicinanza, who is one of three finalists for the 2024 Southbury Artist of the Year Award. Faith will be joined by Tammy Dunn and Alejandra Palaez on November 19, when Southbury Economic Development Commission’s Arts & Culture Subcommittee hosts a public ceremony to announce and celebrate this year’s honoree. The free event will run from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Guests will enjoy a special program celebrating the creativity and dedication of local artists, including presentations by nominators highlighting their chosen artists’ work.

The evening will culminate in the announcement of the 2024 Artist of the Year, followed by an acceptance speech from the winner. A cocktail hour and reception will follow in the rear lobby, with a cash bar provided by The Bevy Co. If you’d like to be there, the committee is asking for reservations; send them a quick note at artsculturesouthbury@gmail.com.

The award was open to all creative types who live or work in Southbury and have made significant contributions to the local arts community over the past year. This includes a wide range of artistic endeavors, from exhibitions and performances to public artworks and other forms of creative expression. We know Faith from her years of living in town, her poetic work and outreach, and even her continued work now that she’s living one town over. I’m sure the other two nominees are equally deserving of the honor, so I do wish the best to all three artists.

Congratulations, meanwhile, to friends and Newtown residents Susan Kassirer and Mark Richardson on the continued success — and now a second printing — of The Knitting Witch: A Spellbinding Tale of Magic and Mischief. When Sue was a child, her mother Norma used to read to her and make up stories all the time. Among the stories Norma read to her daughter was The Knitting Witch, which she penned in the 1950s. After Norma died in 2013, Sue eventually went though the stacks of manuscripts left behind and found the long-lost Knitting Witch. Sue then shared it with her friend Mark, an illustrator, and the two have brought Norma’s work to life. The resulting project was a hand-bound 88-page chapter book published last month by The Collective Book Studio. Distributed by Simon & Schuster, The Knitting Witch is suitable for grades 2-5/ages 7-10 but enjoyable for all ages. It is available as an e-book or paperback — or at least it will be again soon, when the next printing is released. Rumor has it the next run will include some of the very positive words from Kirkus and Booklist reviews.

The holidays are busy enough for most of us, but Kailyn Lahey has really raised the bar (or should I say barre?) this season. The Newtown High School freshman has not only been cast as Clara in next month’s Newtown Centre of Classical Ballet & Voice production of The Nutcracker Suite, she has also been given the same honor for Danbury Music Centre’s equally traditional holiday event. Two NCCB performances are planned for the afternoon of Sunday, December 8, within Edmond Town Hall as part of the Newtown Holiday Festival. The Danbury production will be the following weekend, December 13-15, at Danbury High School. Kailyn has already promised to visit our office next month to talk about her dance journey and compare the productions. Until then, best wishes to Kailyn and the hundreds of people involved in the two shows.

I’m going to trot over to a sunny space in the front office and curl up for a cat nap. First, I’ll offer my reminder that there will be more happy news to read if you’ll remember to come back next week, when you can … read me again.