The Friends of the Sunshine Hall Free Library will be holding a Book and Bake Sale this coming weekend on Saturday, September 2nd and on Sunday, September 3rd. The Sale will take place in the Highland Town Hall at 4 Proctor Road in Eldred across from Peck’s Market during the hours of 10-4pm each day. Due to the Library’s very busy schedule at this time they won’t be hosting the “First Dibs” event on Friday night right before the Sale. Starting at 10am on Saturday, September 2nd, there will be hundreds of books to choose from in all of the most popular fiction and nonfiction categories and many of the Town of Highland’s best bakers will have a wonderful selection of homemade cakes, cookies, and other baked goods for you to choose from. The Book and Bake Sale is the biggest and the most popular sale fundraiser that the Friends of the Library does each year. All the proceeds from the sale go to underwriting public programs at the library as well as provide for the purchase of books, furnishings and equipment needed by the library which helps it to remain one of the Town of Highland’s best public free resource. So please mark your calendars-electronic or otherwise! The Friends always has a need for volunteers to assist with the setup of the book sale on Friday at 4pm in the afternoon, September 1st, to help set up and again on Sunday the 3rd at 4pm to move the unsold books back to the library. If you have some time to volunteer, you can contact me on Facebook or at paulacam@verizon.net or contact the library directly at 845-557-6258.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, most of our Country’s efforts to collect blood donations had to be shut down for two years although the need for blood and platelets always remains constant. According to the American Red Cross the emergency need for lifesaving blood continues to be high this summer as our country once again faces severe shortages. The Red Cross is currently distributing more blood products to hospitals across the country compared to the same timeframe last year. During the last three months the organization has sent twelve percent more blood products to hospitals each day to help patients in need. As with everything else Covid 19 has magnified the blood supply chain and hospitals are dealing with more trauma visits in their emergency rooms and surgeries that had been delayed during the pandemic are now being done. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has said giving blood donations is safe and encourages people who are well to donate blood. A healthy blood donor can give a blood donation every two months. Blood donated by people who have recovered from Covid has antibodies to the virus and the donated blood is processed leaving behind the plasma containing the antibodies (convalescent plasma) which is then given to patients being treated for long term Covid to boost their immune system and fight the virus and survive. The CDC is supporting blood centers by providing safe protocols that are used during blood donations. The American Red Cross has issued an alert for an emergency shortage of all blood types. The next American Red Cross blood drive in our area is scheduled for August 29th from 2-6pm at St. Anthony’s Church’s Community Center at 25 Beaver Brook Road in Yulan.  You do not have to make an appointment and walk-ins are welcome. See you there!