Soups on – yes indeed! With frozen sleet, ice, snow, rain, mud everywhere and bone chilling winds blowing us all to bits, this is 100 percent soup weather, for sure. Rather than go out and shop for all the ingredients and cook and clean up afterwards, the volunteer members of the Lumberland Fire Department’s Auxiliary are going to be preparing and cooking up a storm for their first annual Soup Sale. The Sale will feature nine different kinds of homemade soups featuring vegetable barley, cream of broccoli, split pea with ham, pasta fagioli, Manhattan clam chowder, loaded baked potato soup, cheeseburger soup and chili. The soups are all $10. a quart. Soups must be pre-ordered and placed by Friday, February 21st by either texting or calling (845)-701-3578.The Soup Sale orders pickups will take place on Friday, February 28th between the hours of 4 and 6 p.m. at the Lumberland Fire Department, 1088 County Route 31 in Glen Spey. This is the perfect opportunity to fill your freezer with some wonderful fresh homemade soups to see us all out the door from the last gasping days of this miserable winter weather and show our support for our local Fire Department. For additional information about the Soup Sale go to townoflumberland.org or the Lumberland’ Fire Department’s Facebook or Instagram sites. 

The top academic students at Eldred Central School who are members of the National Honor Society continue their program of public service events that greatly benefit our community by once again sponsoring a blood drive. In partnership with the American Red Cross, the Society’s students are hosting the drive to help deal with the acute blood supply shortage that is happening right now in our country. Many are unaware of the fact that in addition to scheduled surgeries and medical emergencies, patients being treated for many different types of catastrophic illnesses such as cancer frequently need blood platelets to boost their immune system to the degree that their treatment is more likely to succeed. As a longtime blood donor, I have been receiving calls from American Red Cross asking me to donate blood as soon as possible to help ease the shortage so this community blood drive is a great opportunity for me to help out.

Also, if the Honor Society collects enough blood donations to meet their goal, it would make one of the graduating seniors eligible to receive a scholarship from their cosponsor, The American Red Cross. The members of the National Honor Society put in a lot of time volunteering in our community in a variety of ways, and they deserve the chance to get a scholarship to support their advanced education plans and get recognition for their volunteer work. The Drive will take place at the Eldred School’s Cafeteria located at 600 Route 55 in Eldred on Wednesday, February 12 from 2:15 to 6:15 p.m. Because I write this column and attend a lot of community events, I for one have come to appreciate the many projects in our community that have gotten support from the Eldred School Honor Society volunteers. Donating blood is extremely easy, painless and your donation will definitely help save someone’s life. The Blood Drive is open to everyone in the community, and you do not have to pre-register and walk-ins are always welcome. Should you want to make an appointment, go to www.redcross.org. For more information visit the Eldred Central School’s Facebook page or call the Eldred School at 845-456-1100. See you there.