Bravo to the students and families of Reed Intermediate School who recently collaborated to offer a special feast to staff at the Trades Lane school in honor of Ramadan.

Congratulations to Beth Adams, whose name was recently picked for the final raffle prize of last year’s Designer Bag Bingo event that was a fundraiser for Friends of Newtown Community Center. The October event drew a full house, sent many lucky winners home with prizes, and ultimately raised $26,500 for the multi-generational hub within the Fairfield Hills campus. The proceeds — which took a little while to figure, as with any event, as bills were paid and final donations were received — will help the Friends fund scholarships, free community events, and enhancements to the community center.

Meanwhile, one of the new relationships formed during that event is now working toward another fundraiser. Newtown High School senior Claire DiNoto, one of the co-presidents of the high school’s National Honor Society chapter, is receiving some guidance from with Designer Bag Bingo Co-Chair Meghan Rice ahead of a special event Claire is now organizing. We have someone working on a story about that for next week’s paper. Stay tuned...

Wiped Out is a project out of Joe Proc’s music studio that has been giving student musicians live gigs since late 2009. We first wrote about that program when Joe mentioned it ahead of one of the first shows at Proud Mary’s, a previous incarnation of the space now home to Good Old Days Pizza at MaryGold’s on Main. Student musicians have been joined by Joe in and around Newtown for live performances in front of family, friends and customers of the local eateries that have hosted the live music. The tradition continued last weekend with a show in Monroe and it included not only Joe and his students, but a “celebrity guest,” says Joe. A heart surgeon who lives in Newtown who plays guitar, “and is a huge supporter of Wiped Out,” sat in for at least part of Sunday’s show.

Monday evening was the start of Purim and the overnight sky hosted the full Worm Moon I mentioned recently. Those special events also coincided with a rare lunar eclipse, when the Earth’s shadow moved across a full moon, causing the moon to darken and take on a warm, coppery glow. The timing of the annual moon coincides with the annual reappearance of earthworms, and the trails we can see in the ground as they begin moving. I hear the lunar eclipse reached its greatest point at 6:33 am Tuesday, and Worm Moon reached its peak a few minutes later, at 6:38. I’ll take their word for it. This cat slept through the morning activities.

Speaking of sleeping… Kaito is my kind of dog! Show me a critter that can find peace sleeping atop a snowbank and you’ve shown me someone I can hang with. The first photo with this week's column shows Kaito, Sarah Baroody’s husky, who clearly understands his assignment. Huskies love snow, and Kaito has no problem living up to that standard. Sarah took this photo last Friday, and I thank her for sharing it with me.

Last Sunday afternoon I saw something nice at Treadwell Park. A teenager was driving with who I’m guessing was a parent, back and forth and back and forth in the park’s southern driveway. They were there for quite a while, pulling in and out of parking spaces, doing short distances in reverse, and just taking their time with the vehicle. My guess is someone is working toward their driver’s license, and that’s so exciting. Or so I hear. Best wishes to the young driver-to-be.

Best wishes also to this year’s Newtown Ecumenical Workcamp Servants. Saturday morning is their big annual fundraiser, a breakfast event at Newtown Congregational Church. In addition to breakfast, guests will be treated to brief testimonials by young adults and chaperones who have participated in previous workcamp trips. There will also be multiple opportunities to win raffle prizes. Nearly everything has been donated to NEWS, so they can focus on presenting the event and raising funds through “tips” left for the servers — the workcampers themselves — and the money collected through the sale of raffle tickets. Between family, friends, sponsors and regular supporters, the tables for that event fill every quickly but I know the group is always grateful for financial support. Tuition for each camper is $750, so Saturday’s event is an important one. NEWS will be traveling in late June to South Dakota, where they will spend a week working with Cheyenne River Youth Project. If you’d like to help this group, send a note to newsworkcamp@gmail.com.

Bruce the Canned Goods Month Spruce had a good week. Thanks to donations left around his base in recent weeks by Bee employees, he was able to help FAITH Food Pantry clients. I am thankful for those who were able to add to that collection, and to everyone in town who stops in to occasionally leave donations for the food pantry in the box just inside our front door. That box is available year-round, and we are honored to serve as one of the drop-off locations for the longstanding pantry.

I was so excited last week when I heard about The Garden Club of Newtown’s plans for a spring Standard Flower Show, I misread the flier and gave the wrong location for the special event. Fortunately I was close. “May in Bloom” is being planned for May 13-15 at Newtown Community Center, not the similarly named building just across the street. I’m still very excited, and I apologize to the club and its fans for the error. Maybe another cat nap will help.

Speaking of which, my least favorite Sunday of the year is ahead of us. Daylight Saving Time returns this weekend, which means we lose an hour of sleep! Not cool. Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead before going to bed Saturday night. That’s my first reminder of the week. My second? Don’t forget to come back again this time next week, when you can … read me again.