There are many opportunities to assist those impacted by Hurricane Sandy and the subsequent freak snowstorm, through the donations of food, personal hygiene items, and clothing. But Sandy Hook resident and professional photographer Darren Wagner is hoping he can find local photographers to help him as he works to restore memories for storm victims. “Photographers who can scan and retouch damaged photos would be great,” said Darren. “When I saw the news and saw people digging through mud, I was so torn, knowing they had lost everything, including photos. I’m trying to build a network, even one that goes beyond Storm Sandy, to help people who lose their family photographs to disasters,” he said. Contact Darren at wagnerphotography.net if you believe your skills can be of assistance.

Eddie Jensen of Jensen Auto Tire and Marine in Monroe and Trumbull heads a Boy Scout troop that is collecting coats for the Bridgeport Rescue Mission. They need to gather 15,000 coats for people without any coats. Eddie will be dropping off coat donations next week, and will happily accept your gently used winter coats at his business locations. His e-mail is evj93@msn.com, or you can reach him at his Trumbull location during the day, at 203-459-8473, for more information or directions.

You can help on a very local level, too. Newtown’s fire companies will have members stationed outside two of the town’s supermarkets on Saturday, November 17, accepting donations for FAITH Food Pantry. Members of Hawleyville, Hook & Ladder, and Sandy Hook will be at Big Y on Queen Street, and members of Botsford and Dodgingtown will be outside Stop & Shop in Sand Hill Plaza, collecting food of any kind as well as financial donations, from 9 am until 2 pm that day. Everything will then be delivered to the food pantry in Sandy Hook that afternoon.

A press release from Nobleboro, Maine, came our way recently, announcing the partnership of NS Designs (founded by electric instrument designer Ned Steinberger) with Newtown composer Julie Lyonn Lieberman, on her recently published Bollywood Strings Project. Written for either junior or senior high school level players, the parts can be performed independently or interlocked for an all-school performance. In addition to the bilevel scores, Julie has created versions of an accompanying performance video, with and without electric violin, and authentic Indian percussion soundtrack. Julie is an eclectic styles specialist, an improvising musician, educator, recording artist, author, and producer, and is a former faculty member of Julliard and New York University, as well as many other notable music institutions. Julie has made arrangements with NS Design to loan an NXT electric violin to any school that decides to perform Bollywood Strings.

Local band Smokebomb Mondays is in a music contest called SchoolJam USA. They are competing to perform in the finals in Disneyland during the Christmas break, and if chosen as a finalist, they receive $1,000 for the school music program. If they win, there is a $5,000 prize for the school music program, and the band receives some fun stuff, too. Here’s how you can help Smokebomb Mondays, which you might have read about in previous Bee articles. To be in the finals, 40 percent of their score comes from Internet votes and 60 percent from musical talent. They need 500 votes every day to get a top score. Visit www.schooljamusa.com/bands/2012/smokebomb-Mondays, and then vote. You’ll need to register, but then can vote once a day at www.schooljamusa.com. If you like Ska music and like to support young, local talent, take a moment to support these guys. Voting run until the end of November.

“Who’s got a great big cherry nose? Ho, ho, ho…” Experiencing Santa Claus is not always a jolly moment. If you have photographs of your own, your children, or friends and relatives’ unfortunate Santa visits, consider sharing them with The Bee for a special holiday story. Send your photos and a brief who, what, when, and where to Nancy@thebee.com.

That reminds me: if you are soon in the market for a Christmas tree, don’t worry about finding one. The storms seem to have breezed safely over our local crops of trees, according to tree farmers in town. Plenty of beautiful firs and pines are waiting for you!

If I could round up my far-flung family, I would certainly register for the new Annual Holiday Festival event, The Amazing Scavenger Hunt, part of the Newtown Savings Bank-sponsored day to support Newtown Youth & Family Services. The Scavenger Hunt begins at 11 am, at the NYFS office at 15 Berkshire Road, on Sunday, December 2. A minimum of one adult and one child team or maximum of four family members will compete in this trivia and obstacle scavenger hunt all over town, in hopes of winning the grand prize package valued at over $600. Registration and details on the Amazing Scavenger Hunt are available at newtownyouthandfamilyservices.org, or call 203-270-8103. NYFS executive director Candice Bohr guarantees that a fun time will be had by all. The number of teams that can compete is limited, so be sure to sign up sooner rather than later.

If you bump into Mark Aldrich, Garner Correctional librarian, or Chris Belden, who teaches writing at the prison, you can probably talk them into sharing the newest issue of Sentences, a collection of prose and poetry by Garner inmates. Mark says he may try to drop off some copies around town, as well, so keep your eyes peeled.

I’ll be looking for some sentences of my own, so be sure next week to… Read me again.