I saw an announcement that Shirley Reuter has died. I did not know her personally, but Shirley Reuter was an important person in the history of the Town of Highland. Ms. Reuter along with her husband Ken were instrumental in getting the Highland Senior Center built. In November 2017 they were honored by naming the Center after Shirley. She passed away on July 4 at the age of 95 years old. We honor her memory and appreciate her contributions to our community and recognize the importance of her legacy with so many seniors and veterans benefiting from the Shirley Reuter Senior Center. May her name be blessed and serve as a reminder of the importance of contributing to our community.

The Friends of the Sunshine Hall Free Library had a remarkably successful Book and Bake Sale last weekend at Town Hall, and I want to thank everyone who attended and purchased books and got a delicious homemade cake or a pie. The sale had been moved from the traditional Father’s Day weekend in June to July. As a long time member of the Friends of the Library, I can vouch that like many other events held in town, the Book and Bake Sale is a lot of work to pull together. This year’s sale had two new features that contributed to its success, a 50/50 raffle which was won by Steve D. and because of a very generous donation the Silent Auction for two series of Civil War books was won by Frank Guzman who was the highest bidder. Our thanks and congratulations to both winners. Also, I need to let everyone know about our wonderful volunteers-especially the inimitable Joan Turner, the President of the Friends of the Sunshine Hall Free Library ,who was working hard and the first person to arrive every day of the sale and doing her fourteenth book sale! According to Joan after an enforced hiatus of three years due to Covid, the sale was able to raise more money than in previous years and these funds have already been donated to the library. Joan also wanted to thank all the volunteers especially Ryan Gillespie and our Boy Scouts who packed up the thousands of books, moved them to Town Hall, cleaned and sorted them into categories. Then at the conclusion repacked the unsold books and moved them back to the library. Helene Hoffman, one of our marvelous Library volunteers, managed to identify a not-for-profit organization who will take all of the unsold books so a major “hat tip” to Helene. A very special shout-out to Don and Ron of D+R for moving all the books on their flatbed truck in one trip and then rolled up their sleeves and worked removing all the books into Town Hall. Nothing against my new garage, Fox’s Service Station, but I still miss D+R! During our “First Dib” Preview Sale and Reception on Friday night, Konrad and Judit Kovacs gave us the most delicious dessert platter as a donation to the library. It was pretty fabulous with three different kinds of cakes (one was strawberry shortcake) and cheesecake all sliced up ready to go, and they threw in some of their homemade cookies. We so appreciate their generosity, and if you have a get together, call the Yulan Country Store (845-557-0425) and order the Dessert Platter.

The new events series “Back to the Garden” is underway at the Barryville Farmers Market. Last weekend they had a fabulous Sun Scopes Printing Craft Project called Cyanotype a method that makes beautiful prints using only two things-the power of the sun and water. Coming up Saturday, July 23 is a Mini-Book Fair for the kiddoes. According to musician and author Mike Edison who is coordinating the events, Saturday should be a lot of fun and there will be some surprise guests showing up. It’s free and the program starts at 11am. See you there!