My favorite day is finally here! Happy Halloween, everyone! Regardless of where you go or how you decide to celebrate Halloween, have fun and please be safe. Enjoy the day, and especially the spooky eerie evening.

The staff at Baum Braces had some early Halloween fun this week, with everyone at 23 Church Hill Road dressed as bees for the day. Dr Baum, Dr Nyle and everyone else inside that hive of activity coordinated costumes on Tuesday, including Queen Bee Laurel Butler.

Laurel and AnnMarie DeWeese will both be retiring from the practice in May, and it was decided that Laurel would serve as Queen Bee for the day. As you can see from the photo, Laurel’s outfit not only included a beautiful tiara, but the office manager was also adorned in a pair of necklaces featuring bees, and a bracelet with a pair of pollinators.

If you haven’t already done so, please take and share photos taken with Bee’s Brew, this year’s Bee Publishing Company entry into the 6th Annual Newtown Parks & Rec Scarecrow Contest. As always, this cat isn’t telling you how to vote. I’m simply encouraging readers to visit the scarecrow my friends crafted and then placed in front of the municipal center while you’re out looking at the full collection of amazing creations at Fairfield Hills. This year’s Bee team creation invited visitors to take their photo with Bee’s Brew and email it to susan@thebee.com before 4 pm Monday, November 3. We’ll share the photos in next week’s paper, along with the names and photos of the winning scarecrows. Congratulations to everyone who entered this year’s contest, too. I enjoyed visiting the campus and taking in the growing collection of entries. The lack of opposable thumbs made it difficult to vote, but I hope everyone else reading this took the time to do so.

Happy Anniversary Legislative Council! Fifty years ago on November 4, Newtown residents voted for the first time to fill the 18 seats of the inaugural Legislative Council.

This coming Tuesday, of course, that tradition will continue with in-person voting for municipal elections. We had 57 people step up to fill 40 available positions this season, and I admire every one of them. None of those are easy jobs. I hope everyone reading this paper who is old enough to do so has either done early voting or plans to visit your polling location on Tuesday.

Once everyone is finished being busy as beavers between Halloween and Election Day, watch for a full moon on the Wednesday-Thursday overnight. We can look forward to the annual Full Beaver Moon then. A recent note from Newtown Forest Association explained the nickname for November’s full moon notes the time of year when beavers are most active building their lodges and preparing for winter.

A few weeks ago the “Timeless Newtown: Embracing Every Generation” series concluded with a lecture at Edmond Town Hall by Dr Tracey Gendron. About 100 people attended the event, which is a shame because Dr Gendron’s talk was so enjoyable and educational that I find myself still thinking about it. One of the things that really stuck with me was her comment, “We are all aging. It’s actually the one universal thing that connects all people.”

You know what connects many people? Girl Scout Cookies, and Girl Scouts of Connecticut (GSOFCT) will participate in Election Week Cookie Sales, November 1-9. Regardless of party affiliation — or unaffiliation, as the case may certainly be — cookie booths will be enticing for many people heading to the polls. According to GSOFCT’s Cookie Booth Finder, local Scouts will be set up on Tuesday at Newtown Middle School from 8-11 am and Reed Intermediate School from 8 am until 5 pm. Shoppers can purchase most of the usual candidates for $6 per box. Voter-shoppers will have the opportunity to purchase a new offering: the Exploremore. The sandwich cookie features rocky road ice cream-inspired cookies filled with a chocolate, marshmallow, and toasted almond crème. The Cookies for Heroes program will also be available during next week’s special sales.

If you miss the Election Day booths (or want to further stock up), Cookie Booths are also planned for Friday, November 7, from 5 to 8 pm, and Saturday, November 8, from 2 to 6 pm, at NewSylum Brewing Company. After that, it’ll be a stretch of the legs before the next series of sales begin. The regular Girl Scout Cookie Program returns in January.

Girl Scout cookies can be a luxury for some. We know from Human Services and FAITH Food Pantry that many Newtown residents rely on some help to put food on their table. With the announcement this week that food stamps/SNAP benefits are scheduled to stop on November 1 due to the continued federal government shutdown, Governor Lamont announced Monday that the state will provide $3 million to partially fill the gap for some Connecticut residents. More than 360,000 Nutmeggers, or ten percent of this state’s population, will lose their food benefits on Saturday due to the shutdown. CT Mirror this week said 323 Newtown families currently receive SNAP benefits, with 88 of those families estimated to lose $25 or more each month these cuts remain in place. While the state will provide the aforementioned funding to Foodshare — the nonprofit that serves as the sole food bank for all of Connecticut — municipalities and others will need to step up more than they already do.

One of the first new campaigns we heard about this week came from Rosewood Market & Deli. Donations of food and cash to help fill the gap ahead of Thanksgiving will be collected through the end of November at the recently-opened deli-market at 123 Main Street South. While Rosewood is the launching point, an October 27 Facebook post said organizers plan to reach out to additional local businesses “to create a community fund to support families in need this holiday season.” If you’d like to help or have questions, visit the deli-market or call 203-304-1299.

Newtown Bee 2026 calendars have arrived. The long-familiar calendars featuring large, easy-to-read numbers and many holidays (and moon phases) noted are available in our front office. Readers are invited to visit 5 Church Hill Road weekdays between 8 am and 5 pm, earlier and later by chance, to pick one up.

Among the very first to pick up a 2026 calendar after they arrived last week was Retired Bee Publishing Company Copy Editor Janis Gibson. Janis retired in May 2018 after 17 years as our copy editor, and continues to keep in touch with many of us. She does a lot of road trips now that she has the time to do so and often includes Connecticut in her journeys.

It’s always a joy to hear from and/or see friends. I hope you’ll remember to come back for another visit with me next week, when it will be time to … read me again.