It was very discouraging last week to learn that less than 24 hours after an anonymous note was added to the permanent sign in front of Trinity Episcopal Church thanking the church for its diversity and inclusion sign — itself the victim of theft just a few days earlier — the note was stolen. Church officials confirmed last week that they did not remove the Thank You note. They were encouraged by it, Rev Andrea Castner Wyatt said. No, it was someone else who snuck in under the cowardly cover of darkness to take something they didn’t like, something that obviously offended them. Regardless of how you feel about a church and its stance on anything, as one person said on our Instagram feed in response to the initial theft: “Don’t touch things that don’t belong to you.”

The crash of a FedEx truck in Sandy Hook last Friday morning started a conversation on our Facebook page about an exit ramp that used to be in the Riverside section of town. The August 18 crash happened when the driver of a tandem tractor-trailer went off the I-84 West bridge over Center Street, crashing onto the roadway below. The driver was fine — able to get out of the cab on his own, walking around and talking right away, and checked by local ambulance personnel — but the crash closed through-traffic on Center Street for hours. As readers found our story online and began conversations via social media, there were a few who began talking about I-84 Exit 12. Who remembers that short-lived ramp, which served the Riverside community for less than 20 years? We’d love to hear your recollections, and see any photos that show the now-phantom ramps.

Congratulations to Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company, who returned home from Bridgewater Country Fair’s Fireman’s Parade with its third straight Best Overall Company trophy this season. Members of the company and its Ladies Auxiliary celebrated the win on Friday night, after marching past countless spectators including many family members and friends.

In addition to participating in the parade, EMS Captain Karin Halstead had a special honor Friday night. Karin is one of two daughters of the late Sandy Hook VFR Chief Bill Halstead. Chief Halstead died in July 2022, and was reportedly a big fan of the Bridgewater Fair and its parade. When it was time to announce the winners of Friday night’s parade, Karin had the honor of presenting the first annual Chief Billy Halstead Award for Best Appearing Chief Truck to Brookfield Fire Chief Andy Ellis.

Dolly White was one of three Newtown Senior Center members who were celebrated this week for having an August birthday. Dolly not only celebrates her 92nd birthday this month, but her outfit Tuesday afternoon really caught the attention of this cat. We don’t know where her Bees are from, but she rocked a baseball jersey that we couldn’t help but purr over.

Julie VanderKroef shared something pretty neat with us this week. Julie was the liaison between a recently launched group at Newtown Senior Center, called Dresses For Missions, and this newspaper. Managing Editor Shannon Hicks wrote about the project, which has a small dedicated group of women at the senior center who meet every Monday morning to work on simple dresses and pants for children at missionary posts around the world. Others will often visit the senior center to pick up kits for those clothing items, work on them at home, and then drop off the finished items and collect another kit. Julie is also the liaison between the senior center and Walnut Hill Community Church, which has been hosting Dresses For Missions for years. After Shannon’s story about the project was published online, Julie heard from a former member of the Bethel church, who’d moved out of the area with her husband in 2017. The woman now lives in North Carolina, and wants to resume sewing dresses for the same project! We love hearing things like this after we’ve published stories. You never know when a local story is going to have long-distance reach.

Julie also shared an update concerning the Dresses For Mission project. Walnut Hill’s youth groups delivered dresses and pants earlier this summer to Costa Rica and Appalachia, W.V. Currently the dresses are going to Hawaii through the church and its outreach to Samaritan’s Purse Ministry.

Happy Golden Anniversary to the local Commission on Aging. Monday was the 50th anniversary of the formal ordinance establishing Newtown’s Committee on Aging, as it was originally called. Newtown was among a growing number of towns in the state that recognized a need for a formal organization to “deal with the problems of the elderly, and help them take advantage of the various benefits provided by state and federal laws” in August 1973. First Selectman Frank DeLucia and the Board of Selectmen adopted the ordinance 24 hours after a public hearing overwhelmingly supported the move.

Newtown Community Center is closed for a few more days, until Monday, August 28, for annual maintenance. If you or someone in your family recently visited 8 Simpson Street for a program or activity and are now missing a water bottle, towel, baseball hat, T-shirt, etc, I may know where you can look for it. The Lost & Found bins inside the community center’s lobby are once again overflowing with things that have been left behind. Reusable food containers and a pair of orange pool noodles were even poking out of one container when one of our reporters stopped in for a picture last week. If any of this sounds familiar, it’s time to check the bins. Don’t wait too long, though. As a note on one of the bins also reminds everyone, unclaimed items are donated.

As many people continue the countdown to the beginning of the 2023-24 academic year, we not only join local parents looking toward the first day of school on August 30, we have also said farewell to a pair of wonderful summer interns. Maia Labbe and Owen Brown spent the summer with us, and each has filed their final story before they too return to school. Maia is off for her sophomore year at The College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida, with an expanded portfolio that now includes an interview with recently appointed Town Historian Ben Cruson, the New Heights Baptist Church Vacation Bible School finale, and this week’s story feature on protecting yourself from identity theft, among other features she’s filed within the past few months. Owen Brown is heading north, returning to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where he’s starting his junior year and transitioning from Sports Editor to Editor-in-Chief of MCLA’s newspaper. While with us, Owen produced a first-person look at playing 1864 vintage base ball, covered a book challenge rally and a pair of Commission on Aging meetings, and picked up a few summer camp assignments. It’s been a real pleasure to have both around, and wish them — and all students — a phenomenal year.

Congratulations and best wishes to Cindy Utter, the new president of Women Involved in Newtown. After many years with Cyndy DaSilva and Mandy Monaco serving as co-presidents, Cindy has been elected to lead the nonprofit organization. WIN works on various projects annually, with members encouraged to choose where their help is best suited. It’s been in town for 50 years, and new members are welcome to join at any time. There are monthly meetings, an Easter basket and Thanksgiving basket project, and a holiday gathering. Interested in learning more? Visit winct.org or find WIN (@WomenInvolvedInNewtown) on Facebook. Tell ‘em their honorary member sent you.

That’s it for me this week. I hope you’ll remember to come back next week though, and … read me again.