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Millbrook races to support ailing resident

Millbrook races to support ailing resident
Violet Mackey, 14, with her mom, Danielle, and her brother, Brooks, 12, after running the 5-K Walk and Run for Barri. Here, they are after signing a card for Barri. 
Photo by Judith O’Hara Balfe

MABBETTSVILLE — Angels of Light was known for more than 15 years as a local nonprofit charity group that gifted a worry-free holiday season to area families with children who had been diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses. Angels of Light would shop for holiday gifts, wrap them and then present them to the families so they could enjoy worry-free, stress-free holidays.

The Millbrook organization has provided these Christmas and Hanukkah blessings to more than 1,000 families during the past number of years. This past May, Angels of Light announced it would be broadening its mission to help families with other basic needs throughout the year. 

One recipient of its good works is local resident Barri Donellen, known by family and friends as a giving and generous person, beloved by many. Donellen has been diagnosed with Stage IV Esophageal Cancer. 

Angel of Lights Director Lori Decker organized a 5-K walk and run, along with a shorter race for children, that was held on Sunday, July 10, at the Town of Washington Park in Mabbettsville. The event was sponsored by Forza Fitness on Franklin Avenue in Millbrook; more than 70 people signed up to participate. 

“I’m so appreciative of the community and Lori for putting this all together. It’s just me and my mom, and it’s been so difficult,” said Daron McShane, Donellen’s daughter.

— Judith O’Hara Balfe

Millerton News

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Wassaic Project co-founder Eve Biddle presents her “Field Notes”

Wassaic Project co-founder Eve Biddle presents her “Field Notes”

Artist Eve Biddle and Tremaine Gallery Director Terri Moore.

D.H. Callahan

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, the Tremaine Gallery at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville opened its new show, “Field Notes,” with works by multidisciplinary artist Eve Biddle.

Biddle is best known in the area as one of the founders of the iconic Wassaic Project in the hamlet of Wassaic, New York. The project, which is part art incubator, part gallery, part studio and a whole lot of community, is housed in an old converted grain elevator right next to the Metro North train tracks. It’s credited by many as the spark that revitalized the hamlet, which now boasts a craft bakery, a curated wine and liquor store, a pizza hot spot, the Lantern.

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exhibit

Victor Cella is painting his own path

Victor Cella is painting his own path

Artist Victor Cella with his recent painting “White Dog” in his studio and shop, Little Store Antiques in Great Barrington.

L. Tomaino
If I taught art, I’d teach it in a different way. I could teach it as an awareness — how to free yourself up.
— Victor Cella

Paintings by Victor Cella of a blue dog, a flower still life and a colorful abstract greet visitors as they mount the steps to The Little Store, an antique shop he runs with his husband, John Ortisi, at 88 Main St. in Great Barrington, Mass.

The shop is filled not only with antiques but also with Cella’s paintings. People stop by to see what Cella is currently painting and to talk with him. He is known for his amiability as well as his paintings.

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our community

Fear and Loathing in the Woodland

Fear and Loathing in the Woodland

Fear and Loathing in the Woodland Japanese barberry, an invasive shrub with thorny branches, provides shelter for mice and can contribute to conditions that allow tick populations to thrive.

Provided

I am tempting tick-bite fate by writing this, even from the safety of my office.

Eight people emailed me with a link to the New York Times article on ticks that ran in the Aug. 20 magazine section.My Instagram algorithm made sure that I saw the same story several times over.The article, “The Summer the Ticks Took Over,” by Benjamin Wallace reads like a horror story, engendering a kind of paranoia that sidewalk-hugging New Yorkers can easily fall prey to.The reader comments enhance the author’s terror and fall into key categories: readers who are living proof of the sometimes harrowing, life-altering consequences of a tick bite; readers’ instructive life hacks against ticks (“permethrin is your friend”); readers’ collective chant to kill the deer; and, finally, readers who question why anyone would ever go in the woods again.

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the ungardener
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Glass artists at Cornwall Open Studios

Glass artists at Cornwall Open Studios

Jessica Landau creates jewelry from glass. She welcomed visitors to her studio during the Cornwall Open Studio tour on Sept. 5.

Ruth Epstein

David Willis and Jessica Landau were brought together by glass.

They each focus on using the medium for different types of art; he paints and sculpts, while she primarily creates jewelry and glassware.

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community

Oldtone brings roots music, dancing and community to Cool Whisper Farm

Oldtone brings roots music, dancing and community to Cool Whisper Farm

The Allum Ridge Boys & Ashlee at Oldtone Music Festival in 2025

Jim Wright

The Oldtone Music Festival returns Sept. 10 through 13, bringing musicians and audiences together for a four-day celebration of roots music at Cool Whisper Farm in Hillsdale.

Founded in 2015 as a one-day show in Wassaic, Oldtone moved the following year to the Schober family’s Cool Whisper Farm, where it grew into a three-stage camping festival. The festival ran annually until the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation in 2020. After limited attempts to bring it back in 2021 and 2022, organizers announced in early 2023 that the festival would end.

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concerts

“Come From Away,” a story of kindness at Sharon Playhouse

“Come From Away,” a story of kindness at Sharon Playhouse
“Come From Away” cast in rehearsal. (Back Row L to R): Jeffrey Konowitch, Meagan Lewis-Michelson, Max Bennett-Parker, Michael F. McGuirk, Tracy Liz Miller, Ricky Oliver, Cherish Love, Willie Marte (Front Row L to R) Cameron Sirian, Chelsie Nectow, Erin Lindsay Krom, Sophie Nassiri
Lynette Shy

Twenty-five years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the Sharon Playhouse is staging a musical about what happened in the aftermath — and about an extraordinary act of kindness in a small Newfoundland town.

“Come From Away,” the Tony Award-winning musical by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, runs Sept. 11 through 27 and concludes the Playhouse’s 2026 MainStage season. Directed by Hunter Foster, with choreography by Krystyna Resavy and music direction by Eric Thomas Johnson, the production tells the true story of the thousands of airline passengers who suddenly found themselves stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, after U.S. airspace was closed following the terrorist attacks.

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performances
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