Lynne Wintersteller is an incredible Broadway actress, and a gifted soprano has been nominated for the prestigious Lucille Lortel Award for her Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical “About Time.” Lucille Lortel (1900-1999) was a legend in American Theater and produced nearly five hundred plays, and the Lucille Lortel Theater in NYC is the premiere Off Broadway Playhouse in the City. The Lortel Awards are presented annually to honor excellence in Off Broadway theater productions. In forty plus years as an actress Lynne has also won the Drama Desk Award presented for artistic excellence and has appeared in many national tours including Charles Strouse’s “Annie” and Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.” Lynne also has been featured on Netflix’s WORTH with Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci as well as other TV and film credits. A remarkably talented person. Although I enjoy her songs on Spotify, I know her and husband, Mark McGrath, as our Narrowsburg neighbors.  For years Lynne and Mark have consistently supported the St. Anthony’s Food Pantry in Yulan by donating requested food staples for our forty-five families. They are both very talented and generous members of our community. When I asked Lynne about being nominated for the Lortel Award she told me “I know it’s been said a million times, but its truly an honor just to be nominated. Especially for the prestigious Lucille Lortel Off Broadway Award. Maltby & Shire’s “About Time” is a remarkable show about celebrating life as we age in the best ways possible!” Congratulations to Lynne for her nomination and I’m rooting for a win here. 

The Highland Litter Sweep last Saturday was a huge success. About one hundred volunteers showed up in Barryville, and then after a coffee and bagel breakfast they fanned out to the five village locations to start collecting bags of trash from roadways and public spaces. For the sixth year me and three friends worked on Team Six with thirty-four members captained by Frank Guzman. For the second year we cleaned up Route 31 in Lumberland. Fortunately, the weather was perfect and after several hours out on the roadside which looked clean we each managed to fill up at least one commercial sized garbage bag. Team Six sincerely thanks Paul Schierwagen and his staff at Brookside Service Center in Eldred for stepping up to collect all seventy-five trash bags we filled. Town Supervisor John Pizzolato explained that the Litter Sweep volunteers gathered enough trash to fill a four-yard dumpster, which was generously donated again this year by Matt Salusco from Next Gen Dumpsters. According to Google, four yards of trash can weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds—a significant amount that is now responsibly disposed of and kept out of the Delaware River. Congratulation to Christine Martin (the Town of Highland’s representative to the Upper Delaware Council) and Highland’s uber volunteer Cathy Daboul for their superb work in organizing the Litter Sweep as a volunteer beautification project to celebrate the 250^th Anniversary of the founding of America and keeping Highland and America beautiful. Thank you to my favorite restaurant Back to Bakers for providing unlimited pizza after the Sweep for the Volunteers After Party and to The Hungry Goat for free Ice Cream cones. It was a wonderful event and got the job done!