Congratulations are in order for Pastor Charles Perez as he celebrates the three-year anniversary of the founding of the Barryville Community Church. Pastor Perez and his wife Jenny and their four children have become a constant in our community over the years. He recently told me how he sometimes marvels at the transformation his family went through coming from his years as a pastor in Newark, New Jersey to finding themselves now living in a very small rural community on the banks of the Delaware River. Pastor recently told me that it seems from what he has learned from other local clergy that folks do not seem interested in going to church as all the churches are struggling for one reason or another and at this point Pastor Perez is the only church leader who lives full time in Highland. He told me that his church has been growing slowly and he has spent a lot of time over the past years with programs like his popular free summer basketball clinic “Holy Hoops” which is held in Circle Park, a summer activities program at Camp Koinonia, a series of bible studies, and Pastor is now sponsoring a very active Food Drive to stock The Church’s  Little Food Pantry  (a recycled bright yellow newspaper box )which is right on Route 97.  The amount of food that goes through that yellow box out to community members is truly amazing. As I hear so frequently from pantry users “every little bit helps.” With keeping this yellow box constantly stocked with food, the Barryville Community Church is doing a great job of helping our community. In conjunction with the Church’s anniversary celebration Pastor Perez will be holding a special Blessing of The Animals event at the Church on Saturday, September 27th from 10-1pm. So bring your dogs, cats, birds, chickens and all your household or farm pets. The blessing with Holy water of animals goes back to the 13th century and stems from the traditions surrounding St Francis and his connections to protecting nature and animals. There will be free items for your pets given out. The actual Anniversary Church Celebration will take place on Sunday, September 28th with a service at 10am. The Barryville Community Church is located at 3396 State Route 97 in Barryville. All community members are welcome. For additional information go to www.barryvillecommunitychurch.com.

Speaking of pets! On the first and third Wednesday of every month, The Sunshine Hall Free Library holds a Storytime starting at 10am. And September is Happy Cat Month! There will be great tales about our furry friends, music, and crafts. The next Happy Cat Storytime will be held at the Sunshine Hall Library’s Main Reading Room, on Wednesday, September 17th. Recommended ages are 2-4 years and everyone is welcome to attend. Sunshine Hall Free Library is located at 14 Proctor Road, Eldred, NY. 

I love having my official free  NASA’s free app on my phone and its extensive features. The app provides comprehensive information regarding space missions, upcoming launches (both manned and unmanned), launch videos, daily NASA photographs, and impressive images of the cosmos. Notably, the app can track the location of the International Space Station (ISS) in real-time and notifies me when the ISS will be visible and pass over the Town of Highland. Approximately two months ago, I easily observed the ISS traversing the sky from my backyard.

The International Space Station completes an orbit around Earth roughly every ninety minutes, traveling at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. As a result, the seven astronauts currently aboard (four Russians and three Americans) experience sixteen sunrises and sunsets over a twenty-four-hour period.

The next optimal opportunity to view the Space Station from Highland is scheduled for Friday, September 12th at 8:09pm, during which it will be visible for seven minutes. The Station will reach a maximum altitude of sixty-two degrees—anything over forty degrees is an excellent angle for observation—and will appear eleven degrees above the west-southwest horizon, moving across the sky to ten degrees above the North East before disappearing from view. To download the official NASA app, visit the Google Play Store, search for “NASA” (ID: gov.nasa), and select install.