Have some fun this Friday night and support a good cause. The Newtown High School Nighthawks football team will hold a fundraiser in support of the American Cancer Society. In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, pink T-shirts will be sold for $10 and fans are asked to wear pink in support of the fight against breast cancer. The players will wear pink socks, pink shoelaces, and pink tape. Now that alone makes it an event worth watching! Kick-off at the Blue & Gold Stadium is at 7 pm, October 5, against Brookfield.

Richard Brady was riding by Liberty ball field off of Elm Drive earlier this month when his eagle eye spotted a hawk at the side of the road. The hawk kindly remained posing there while Rick hurried home to get his camera, and came up with this picture. Rick thinks it is a young Cooper’s hawk, but would love input from readers to verify that. “The bird was about 18 inches tall,” Rick tells me, and that’s enough to put this cat’s hair on end.

At least two Newtown residents, Vic Scalora and Timothy Vogelman, members of the 2d Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery (SCVHA), will take part in a living history Civil War Encampment honoring the war’s 150th anniversary, Saturday, October 6. The encampment will be at the original site of Camp Tyler, a Civil War training camp in Meriden on the Quinnipiac River. Visitors will see an authentic camp setup, with typical activities like marching, and authentic weapons drills around noon. The event runs from 9 am to 3 pm at Dossin Beach Park, with entertainment, education, and fun for all ages — all for free. For details, visit MeridenCivilWar.wordpress.com.

That still gives you enough time to make it to Mt Pleasant Hospital for Animals on Route 6 for “Fall Fun & Adoption Day,” if you hurry. The event, running from noon to 5 pm on Saturday, will feature adoptable cats and dogs, a demo of pet chiropractic, a bake sale (doggie biscuits, anyone?) and live music by Lucinda Rowe and Michael Connolly, from noon to 3. Look for pet photographer Elizabeth Levy, pet-friendly vendors, Home Again micro-chipping, and some manners’ testing for dogs. All proceeds will benefit local animal rescue groups. Pets and the public are invited to this free afternoon of food, games, and the chance to give a special cat or dog a forever home. Rain date is Sunday, October 7.

Speaking of forever homes… We received a sad e-mail from animal advocate Karlyn Sturmer who recently said goodbye to her rescued Sheltie, Blue. Blue died Wednesday, September 26. She was suffering from an inoperable brain tumor diagnosed in 2010. With treatments and often beating the odds, Blue continued leading a very active and healthy life for more than two years. But her last days saw first a liver problem and then trouble breathing. Ms Sturmer wrote: “It was evident that it was time to say goodbye to the beautiful, petite, blue-eyed, sable-merle Sheltie who had brought so much joy to so many lives.”

The timid dog had survived on her own in the woods before Ms Sturmer was able to rescue her and give her a home, back in 2006. In Ms Sturmer’s words, Blue’s story had “captivated the hearts of Newtowners when she was discovered to be alive more than two years after she had escaped from her adopters and disappeared.” She had initially been rescued from a puppy mill, before getting loose from her new family and fleeing into the woods of Newtown.

“Incredibly, Blue survived three Connecticut winters,” Ms Sturmer wrote. Ms Sturmer had followed Blue’s tracks in the snow after noticing evidence of her eating at a feral cat station that Ms Sturmer maintained in town. “That began the long process of trying to track and trap her, but the extremely timid and wily dog who had had years of abuse and abandonment, did not make her capture easy,” Ms Sturmer wrote.

Finally on May 3, 2006, with the support of The Animal Center, Animal Control Officer Carolee Mason, and many tips and phone calls from residents, Ms Sturmer succeeded in trapping Blue and took her home. Since then, Blue had a home with Karlyn, her spouse Nannette Coco, and their four cats. She traveled with Karlyn and Nannette, and often hiked and kayaked with them. “She was a much-loved dog who had a very good life that canceled out the early years in which she suffered at the hands of puppy millers and then during her three years of flight,” said Ms Sturmer.

On a brighter note, FAITH Food Pantry received a check from Cheryl Hensel earlier this week (see photo and info elsewhere in this week’s issue of The Newtown Bee), representing the proceeds of her recent fundraiser. Cheryl designed and sold T-shirts printed with “I Shot The Rooster … but I did not steal the bumble bee,” tipping a hat to two of our hometown’s iconic landmarks. Most of the initial batch of shirts has sold out, said Cheryl. Less than a dozen remain available right now, but she is collecting names and requests for shirts to be ordered in plenty of time for the holidays. Cheryl plans, she said, to place another full order around mid-November. She is still asking for a $15 donation per shirt, which will continue to benefit the food pantry. Contact Cheryl at allOUTeffort@live.com if you would like to get onto the order list. Meanwhile, anyone who would like to help the food pantry can make donations during The Second Annual Passport To Sandy Hook this weekend. As part of the five-hour event (details in this week’s issue of The Bee), Sandy Hook firefighters will be collecting nonperishable food items, toiletries, and even financial donations for the Washington Avenue food pantry in the firehouse parking lot at 102 Church Hill Road, from 11 am until 4 pm, on Saturday.

If you’re hungering for a chance to get that first edition, inscribed copy of The Hunger Games by local author Suzanne Collins, a little bird told me that the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library should be posting the donated book on eBay in the next week or two. Wouldn’t hurt to be a regular visitor to the eBay site, if you want to be the early bird that gets the worm.

Hungering for a nibble of the newsworthy, though, instead? Be sure next week to… Read me again.