There is a great annual event coming up this weekend. A sign of some normalcy and a celebration of an age old fishing tradition.

The Mahogany Ridge Hunting and Fishing Club will be holding their Annual Ice Fishing Contest on Saturday February 13th at Sand Beach on beautiful Highland Lake.

I have never been to Sand Beach in the winter, but it is the greatest time ever in the summer. They have a nice deck, good food and a very friendly bar.

For the Ice Fishing Contest and Winter Festival there will be plenty of time for the kiddos to run around in the snow, and family focused activities happening throughout the day.

The Ice Fishing Contest starts at 7:00am to 3:00p.m with the weigh in from 2:00 to 2:45pm and each fisherman gets one dozen free minnows. The fee is $20.00 for adults and $10.00 for kids aged twelve and under and the ticket will only be sold at the door.

There is a raffle with some impressive prizes including an auger and a chain saw. Raffle tickets can be bought during the event. Due to Covid 19, out of an abundance of caution, all activities will be outdoors so bundle yourselves up for the weather.

There will be a tent outside on the deck for food and drinks and fires nearby to keep everyone toasty warm. The food service and the pig roast starts at 1:00p.m.

The Sand Beach Restaurant is well known for having terrific pig roasts so don't be tardy to this party! Sand Beach Bar and Restaurant is located at 348 Lake View Drive in Highland Lake.

For more information you can contact Sand Beach at 845-557-8757 or visit the Mahogany Ridge Hunting and Fishing Club on Facebook.

In my last column I was crowing that the winter had not been that bad-then it stormed for three days dumping two feet of snow. From now on I intend to leave all weather prognostication to Eric Hartmann from the Naked Weatherman group on Facebook!

Highland got slammed with more snow than we have had in years and our Highway Department did a fantastic job getting it cleaned up right down to the blacktop-and praise the Lord the electricity stayed on which is a miracle in itself.

One young man decided to shovel out his 80-year-old neighbor before starting in on his snow clean up business. When she came to the door in her winter coat he noticed and asked why.

She had run out of heating fuel the day before and the storm delayed her delivery, and one heater was doing a poor job keeping body and soul together in the cold. He ran home and got another heater for her and jumped on Facebook and asked for someone with a truck to take him out into the teeth of the storm to buy her some kerosene and offered up gas money for the trip.

He bought the fuel and got her squared away until the fuel delivery the next day and then went on about his clean-up business.

His name is Robert Walker and he cared enough to notice her distress and then went way out of his way to make sure she was safe and back up on her feet during the desperate weather that I am sure scared her to death in her dire circumstances.

We need to know and remember what took place and we need more examples like Robert Walker's kindness across the landscape of our lives to shine on the darkness around us.

We need to remember that the heart of our lives is to care. Many thanks to Robert Walker for his exceptional reminder to us all.