A day to offer holiday wishes buoyed by gratitude

Merry  Christmas and happy holidays to all! It has been a wonderful year for the Santa Claus Fund. We are very thankful for all the support we received this year. It has been a pleasant journey, and I look forward to the holidays. They will provide a little down time for me and my volunteers.

There was a lot to do in so short a time. But I have to thank all the volunteers at the North Pole Annex who did a marvelous job.

I want to wish all of the men and women who made those wonderful wooden toys and knitted all those hats, scarves, blankets and mittens, a very Merry  Christmas. Your talent, time and money are a key part of our program. Thank you so much.

I have to thank those Christmas shoppers who bring the toys and drop them off at the Elks lodges. I wish you a merry Christmas too!

Those extra toys often plug the holes in our inventory when we really need them. To those of you who take the time to make these generous donations, I wish you a very Merry Christmas too. Your donations this year are nothing short of a miracle. Thank you so much.

I also wish to send a special thank you and a merry Christmas to our friends at The Times Record. Their support cannot be understated. They allow us to communicate with all of you every day from Thanksgiving to Dec. 31. Their partnership is so important to us, and I appreciate all they do for us.

I am going to keep this short today to meet holiday deadlines. Here are the latest donations: L. Valerie Campbell and Stephen H. Campbell sent $25. Richard and Pauline Harris mailed us $70. Thank you.

We also received a $75 donation from Lief, Kim, Kelsea, Moriah, and Micailah Albertson. They wish to recognize the fantastic teachers and staff at the Bath Middle School and the Phippsburg Elementary School. Thank you, Albertson family.

Today’s total is $170. Our new grand total is $41,773.05. That money will provide lots of toys for local families in need.

To donate to the 2010 campaign, mail checks to: The Santa Claus Fund Inc., P.O. Box 278, Brunswick, ME, 04011.

Thank you everybody. I will be back on Monday.

Christmas wish lists for all

Christmas wish lists for all,

With Christmas only four days away, there are many within NASCAR circles who have some rather specific items on their gift lists. Here’s a look at a few things they’d love for Santa to leave under the tree.

With five consecutive Sprint Cup championships now in the record books, Jimmie Johnson is measuring for more display cases for his trophy room. What concerns so many of his fellow drivers and teams is that as long as he and crew chief Chad Knaus are together, stopping their championship reign will be tough. The dynasty they’ve built is nothing short of incredible. No doubt, it’s a great Christmas season for El Cajon, Calf. driver.

Denny Hamlin’s Christmas list is short and sweet; 40 points more that what he had in 2010. The 39 he needed at Miami-Homestead Speedway last month to tie Johnson at race’s end and one more point to put him out front. Hamlin and crew chief Mike Ford put together an eight-win season that had championship written all over it. But a late-race miscue in gas mileage at Phoenix with only one race remaining seemed to derail the team’s title hopes. Hamlin enters the 2011 season as Johnson’s strongest challenger to unseat the reigning champion.

Kevin Harvick is hoping to collect that elusive first Sprint Cup title in 2011. He wasn’t even among the 12 drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2009 and neither were teammates Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer. Last Christmas, everyone at RCR went into a new year anxious to implement major changes within the storied organization. A fleet of new cars were built, key personnel entered into new roles and everyone began the season with title hopes the top priority. They came very close. Going into the final race of the season in Miami, Harvick kept the hopes of all RCR employees alive as he battled within the top three positions in points. In the end, Harvick finished third but a strong contender for 2011.

Carl Edwards wants a repeat of his 2007 Christmas wish. The next season, he won nine races but lost the title to Johnson in the final race. Last season, he won twice and added nine top-fives and 19 top-10s to his list of accomplishments. All Jack Roush-owned Fords struggled to get checkered flags until their overall program began to improve after Greg Biffle’s win at Pocono, Pa. in August.

Those wins came in the final two events at Phoenix and Homestead, Fla. to ended the year on a high note. The Columbia, Mo. native goes into Speedweeks in February feeling confident he can continue his win streak with a victory in the Daytona 500. The last title run for the Concord-based team came with Kurt Busch in 2004.

Matt Kenseth hopes his gift for 2011 includes getting back to his winning ways. His six top-fives and 15 top-10s was good enough to log a fourth-place finish in points but there’s plenty of room to improve. Kenseth’s quiet and methodical style keeps the competition guessing while he builds his title hopes. He won the Sprint Cup championship in 2003, the year before the current Chase system began. A little more consistency and he and his crew will be making headlines.

Greg Biffle finished sixth in points in 2010 but showed great championship strength toward the end of the season. The ingredients that seemed to be missing during the season came to life during the 10-race Chase. Biffle’s Christmas list certainly includes new Fords and the relatively new engine package for next season. The Vancouver, Wash. native had two wins, nine top-fives and 19 top-10s and has an established record on which to build. Look for some surprise success from him in 2011.

(source:the-dispatch.com)

My Christmas wish list,hope

Christmas wish list,hope,

I haven’t written a Christmas list for many a year, but it seems an obvious time to make a wish list for Middletown.

So, Dear Santa:

I hope for ready access to the Connecticut River from downtown sometime before my family is scattering my ashes in the current.

I wish for a triumvirate of leadership, city, school and unions, who will understand that if we have the best schools in Connecticut, right here in Middletown, it will be the most productive economic generator we could hope for.

I wish for more retail on Main Street.

I hope for a new restaurant that doesn’t serve pizza. In fact, I have a specific wish for good barbecue and locally-brewed beer.

I wish for a city that won’t spend hundreds of thousands of dollars suing itself.

I wish, against hope, for full PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) reimbursement from the State of Connecticut.

It’d be nice to have a full-time police chief before next Christmas.

I pray for more owner-occupied residents downtown

I wish that everyone is able to be warm when they need to be warm, and can find a meal when they are hungry.

I wish Common Council meetings would all be one hour shorter.

I hope that all our men and women in the armed forces are able to return home strong and healthy.

I wish the surface parking lots on Main Street would disappear beneath prosperous development.

Anywhere in town I’d love to turn the corner and find a Whole Foods, a home-made ice cream shop, an RJ Julia annex, a club booking nationally-touring musical artists.

I wish those beep-beep-beep walk lights (audible pedestrian signals) on Washington Street would be replaced with bird chirps.

Bike paths. Lots and lots of bike paths.

I wish someone from the Destinta chain would pay some real attention to the quality of projection at their Middletown theater.

I hope for a short-circuit for the system that plays endless classical music around the Middle Oak complex.

I’d like a downtown festival that doesn’t revolve around the internal combustion engine.

hope for a strong gust of wind to blow all the satellite TV dishes off the roofs of historic homes around town.

I’d like a populace who understands that you can carp and complain all you want on news blog sites, but things will never change unless you turn off the TV, get up off the couch and do something.

I’m thinking if John Basinger could memorize Paradise Lost, that Paradise Regained shouldn’t be too far behind.

A monthly night-time farmers market.

I wish for the return of a city (municipal) farm, where education would be combined with sustainable principles to create food for those in need.

I wish for an apology from Kleen Energy. All we’ve ever heard is how much good they’ve done for the city. Time to finally man-up on this one.

Another new senator.

I wish for city-wide free Wi-Fi.

I’m sure there are lots of wishes, hopes and desires I’ve missed, and I encourage you to add yours in the comments section

Finally, I hope for health and happiness for family, friends and neighbors. And as hackneyed as it sounds, peace on earth and goodwill toward men, and women.

And Santa, if you are able to fulfill even one of these wishes, there’s a glass of Knob Creek and a sugar cookie waiting on the hearth.

Ed McKeon is a filmmaker with Motion Inc., and one of the founders of the Middletown Eye.

(source:middletownpress.com)

Christmas wish list,More rain on farmers

Christmas wish list,More rain on farmers,

The weekend's rain was welcome news for farmers, although some areas will still take a long time to recover from drought even if more rain follows, Federated Farmers says.

Everything was dependent on a change in the weather pattern and a regular supply of rain was needed, not just irregular dumps, spokesman David Rose said tonight.

"While the weekend rain is welcome, this dry season will dramatically affect our farmers' profitability. Some are selling stock early, buying in supplementary feed and reducing their herds to once-a-day milking."

The last serious drought, in 2008-2009, cost the national economy $2.8 billion.

There was a lot of summer yet to come and more regular rainfall was on every farmer's New Year's and Christmas wish list, he said.

(source:odt.co.nz)

Christmas Wish list,Needy for whole lot more

Christmas Wish list, more,

Think I have a pretty good chance of getting the first two items; I guess we need to work on the last one. I think it would help if we remember the words of Mother Teresa: “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

In this community we call home, we all belong to each other in one way or another. We drive the same traffic-clogged roads, shop in the same multitude of stores and enjoy the same beautiful scenery.

Looking around this Christmas season, we can find ways to share what we have with each other. We can give gifts from the heart, gifts that bring a little peace on earth. If you need any ideas, here are just a few, off the top of my holiday-stressed head:

We can help Feed the Needy on Christmas Day or help pack the boxes full of food for the Covington Rotary Club’s Feed the Needy program. To help get the dinners prepared and boxed up for Christmas, just show up at St. Paul’s cafeteria anytime after 9 a.m. Thursday Dec. 23 and/or Friday Dec. 24. On Christmas morning, volunteers who want to deliver meals should arrive at St. Paul’s no later than 7:45 a.m. Feedy the Needy co-founder John Baldwin said that last year, all of the packages had been handed out by 8:25 a.m. The boxed-up meals come complete with directions and go to a variety of areas, so you can pick your destination.

We can spend some time over the holidays collecting food for the food bank in Covington or clothes for the thrift store right next door on Columbia Street. Maybe your closet will need a little cleaning after you unwrap all those new Christmas clothes. You might consider donating some time to the food bank, thrift store or even the dental clinic if you have the skills needed for that important ministry in Covington. For more information, call 893.3003 for the food bank, 892.5282 for the thrift store or 871.3939 for the dental clinic.

We can give the gift of life by donating blood. There is always a need for blood, especially during the holiday season. The Blood Center of Southeast Louisiana is offering free admission to Santa’s Secret Workshop in New Orleans for anyone who donates blood by Friday. You can find out more about donations, locations and requirements at The Blood Center’s website: http://www.thebloodcenter.org.

We can volunteer some time with Habitat for Humanity St. Tammany West, whether it’s time actually building a house or working in the ReStore. You can get more information at the website: http://www.habitatstw.org/index.php. Habitat has many ideas for involving younger children in the effort to help others build a better life, so you can check on that, too.

We can help the Covington Boys and Girls Club, which will reopen in January and will need adults willing to offer their time after school. For more information, call the city of Covington at 892.1811.

So there is my very incomplete list of gifts from the heart. I’m sure you have your own.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to the day after Christmas, when I can sit back, read about Drew Brees and think about cultivating a little peace in my corner of the earth, like my friend the quarterback — just without the multimillion-dollar contract.

(source;nola.com)