Check out the photo albums at the bottom of this post too!
All Summer
OLOG Rummage all stars Bernice Auger, Sarah Upson, Mary Jo Chapoton, Jeanine Getz, Elisabeth Parker, and Mary Linda Strunk with Catherine Peishoff and Liz Parsons get special thanks for the fun treasure hunt at the Rummage each week this summer. They must have accumulated lots of ‘steps’ bringing the pop-up surprises and favorite items up and down the stairs each week. Thank you for the big effort and the fun FaceBook posts on Fishers Island OLOG Rummage
September 1
July 29
Thank you to Tyler Vaughey for securing and donating a variety of over thirty hand sanitizer dispensers to various Island entities including the Ferry District and Libray. All are very grateful for the generosity.
July 14
From FICC: Special Thank You to Heather Burnham & The Beach Plum! It takes a Village!
As so many shipments have been delayed, so too has been our delivery of shopping bags to the Community Center. Since we are serving dinner once a week, we certainly need shopping bags. Special thanks to Heather who came to our rescue and provided bags from The Beach Plum.
When you pick up your Community Center dinner in The Beach Plum’s distinctive green bags, we hope it will be a reminder to stop by Heather’s shop to see all her amazing new summer inventory.
July 9-11: Thank you to all who assisted with the beached Pygmy Sperm Whale
June 28: Thank you to the Wooten & Kelly family for completing the end of the Chocomount Beach path for all to have easy access to the sand – including Ellie Kelly for her daily swim at a young 91. Wooten family members in action are Sim, Currie, Luke, with Andrew and his daughters.
March 13-Present
One great solace during these difficult times is that those who are on the Island can witness daily acts of selflessness by our merchants, service providers and fellow residents. The hard work and fundamental heroism of these individuals should not go unnoted. In a series of updates, we will try to recognize those who have made life so much better for their fellow residents during this crisis. We will recognize them organization by organization and person to person with apologies to any whom we miss. Please send any additions you would like to contribute and photos (check out the photo galleries at the bottom of the page) to be included to finyinfo@gmail.com and they will be added.
Don’t forget the teachers!
“I think a huge thank you needs to be sent to the FIS teachers and staff for continuing to provide support and education of our children. They are so selfless to show up every day despite having their own home and lives turned upside down. And the fact they all have managed to adapt to new teaching strategies so quickly is no small feat! By providing stability and some semblance of routine in a time with so many unknowns is invaluable to our youngest community members.” ~ Anonymous
May 25, 2020
As we celebrate Memorial Day 2020 without the cannon blast, the parade of first responders, bagpipers, the 21 gun salute, nor picnics, and marathon, please take a chance to say thank you to Ann Banks and Nick Klimczak for placing all the veterans’ flags in the cemeteries and to veterans Patty Walker and Tim Patterson for placing wreaths at the Village Green and American Legion.
One group is the Village Market personnel, without whom we quite literally would go hungry. Here are the staff who now are working flat out, filling orders with speed, accuracy, and remarkably good cheer. Please thank them – at an appropriate distance – if and when you can. Bill, Marlen, Billy, Ellie, Karen, Amanda, Cheryl, Allison, Andrei, and Christina.
The Post Office runs like clock-work due to Postmaster Kathy and Allison. Even on Monday, April 13, when the wind was howling and gusting and the ferry had to cancel the last run, they made sure to let everyone know to get their mail to the office to make the noon boat. This service keeps all connected to the mainland and access to important mail and treats for special occasions!
Another is the Ferry Crew – from New London, across Fishers Island Sound to Silver Eel Cove on Fishers Island they make living on an island actually possible. Kevin and Jasmine are the freight faces here and everyone appreciates their help with the freight of all sizes and shapes coming over, and shipments going off. As a small token of thanks to so many, the community staged (what we hope was) a surprise parade on Monday, April 6, 2020.
Thank you also to the Medicine Shoppe for helping to get ferry crew masks as well. And, for their continued willingness to get the needed medicine to our Island residents in a timely and most pleasant manner.
Island Hardware is also making life here possible by offering curbside pick up. Thank you to Ron and Frasier for their assistance there!
On Island volunteers have been making masks and handing them out to people who need them. And, we learned Canio’s fabulous fabric is being put to very good use as well!
“Some of the fabric Canio donated to the Fishers Island churches is being used to make face masks for hospitals in the Philadelphia area in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and shortage of personal protective equipment. Last year, Our Lady of Grace Church donated approximately 100 bolts of 100% cotton to a sewing group in the Philadelphia area that makes pillowcases for children entering Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and other regional hospitals. This sewing group contributes to the larger effort CasesForSmiles.org that operates across the US and Canada to support children experiencing illnesses and hospital stays that can be traumatic. Recently, the group was asked to sew cotton face masks for use in non-contagious hospital areas in order to ensure enough personal protective equipment was available for infectious disease cases – luckily they still had bolts of Canio’s fabric and were able to jump right in. They have delivered over 500 masks so far and are still sewing.” ~ Cathy Peishoff
If anyone on Island would like to make masks, please contact Patty Faulkner, pattyfaulkner7@gmail.com. There is 100% cotton fabric available for anyone looking to sew masks, particularly now that NYS is under a mandatory mask order. If interested, you will need to procure thread or elastic, but those can be found online.
Very thoughtful young Island children created beautiful paper butterflies, each with a hopeful message, that appeared on almost 40 various door windows all over the island several weeks ago. What a happy sign!
April’s Senior Lunch gathering was cancelled but the day was saved for many guests when April’s volunteer chef Karla Heath offered to deliver the meals to the guests. She prepped and she and Michelle Klimczak delivered 21 meals to regular guests who took her up on the wonderful offer!
Karla wrote, “In wondering how long it would be until we would be able to enjoy a Senior Luncheon again, I thought why not turn it into a packaged and delivered lunch. Menu: Beef Stew, 1/6th Baguette, Waldorf Salad, and Lemon Butter Snowbars. Only photo I took was of 1 of 3 Chafers of the Stew.”
Thank you to Nancy as she keeps tabs on comings and goings at Goose Island. Even when one has nowhere to go, you still need gas for the random drive up to the other end, every once in a while!
Perogies perhaps? Another Island cook (we all know who she is) generously delivered her carefully crafted homemade perogies! What a treat to have this deliciousness for lunch on a cold rainy workday!
Kudo’s to Brandy for holding down the fort at Transfer and Annette at Compost!
“I am no longer on the FIWM board, but I think they have been doing a great job. Opening Compost by appointment this week and next on Tuesdays and Thursdays will help solve some problems with people spending their time cleaning out all that stuff we should have done last year (or the year before). I love Brandy’s sign at the transfer station. Best all, Tim”
Johnny B is on the mark every evening sharing the updated Suffolk County Situation Report and keeping everyone informed in his role as Fishers Island Emergency Management Director (FIFD EMD). Thank you also to Jimmy and Nichole for also helping to distribute the COVID-19 Census cards to the newly arrived to help with contact tracing and getting a general sense of the population for planning purposes.
Reverend Candy Whitman continues to offer her pastoral administrations and online services to her congregation at Union Chapel. The sign outside continues to change with wonderful one-liners such as Fishers Island Strong.
Behind the scenes, we also have Mere and Zach keeping the ‘ghosts’ out of the regular Tuesday night Zoom ICB updates with IHP – which brings us to IHP and the amazing contribution the good Doctor and his staff of Di, Dee, Jamie, Stacy, and Kapri are making. Keeping the doctor’s office humming while they prep for telemedicine appointments through MyChart connectivity which is apt to get busier in the coming months.
The Fire Department members are quietly going about their drills (some with online classes) and equipment maintenance with new protocols to keep the officers and the volunteer firefighters, EMTs and Sea Stretcher crews ready 24/7 should an emergency arise!
And we can’t finish the month of April without a hearty and healthy thank you to Fishers Island Oyster Farm, their crew and family for generously offering oysters to Islanders during April Oyster Joy. Please read this letter when you have a moment.
Friends, family and neighbors caring for friends, family and neighbors without a second thought.
Anti-COVID-19 Photo Gallery
Click any image to see a larger version.
Send us your pictures and we will add them! finyinfo@gmail.com
WHAT IF…..
If they cancel the rest of the school year, students would miss months of education. Many people are concerned about students falling behind because of this. Yes, they may fall behind when it comes to classroom education…
But what if…
What if instead of falling “behind”, this group of kids are ADVANCED because of this?
What if they have more empathy, they enjoy family connection, they can be more creative and entertain themselves, they love to read, they love to express themselves in writing?
What if they enjoy the simple things, like their own backyard and sitting near a window in the quiet?
What if they notice the birds and the dates the different flowers emerge, and the calming renewal of a gentle rain shower?
What if this generation is the one to learn to cook, organize their space, do their laundry, and keep a well-run home?
What if they learn to stretch a dollar and to live with less?
What if they learn to plan shopping trips and meals at home?
What if they learn the value of eating together as a family and finding the good to share in the small delights of the everyday?
What if they are the ones to place great value on our teachers and educational professionals, librarians, public servants and the previously invisible essential support workers like truck drivers, grocers, cashiers, custodians, logistics, and health care workers and their supporting staff, just to name a few of the millions taking care of us right now while we are sheltered in place?
What if among these children, a great leader emerges who had the benefit of a slower pace and a simpler life to truly learn what really matters in this life?
What if they are AHEAD?
March 2020, Author Unknown
