The Blue Creek Blue Creek Springtime Monarchs (an affiliate of the National Wild Turkey Foundation) is inviting all area youth to its annual JAKES (Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship) Day at the Izaak Walton League facility north of Vinton.

Children age 17 and under are invited to this free event on Saturday, Aug. 13, to enjoy and learn about many activities including hunter’s safety, archery, .22 rifle target practice, trap shooting, and game calling. Lunch and drinks are provided. The first 60 children to register will receive a free Jakes Day t-shirt.

For more information, call Mike Salow at (319) 350-4187 or Randy Scheel at 319-477-3150.

See the event Facebook page HERE.

Our world is awash in plastic. From single-use water bottles and food packaging to synthetic clothes, shoes, and even nail polish, our overreliance on plastic is spreading a toxic, chemical-laden material all over the planet — including in our own bodies.

Most Americans are sick of plastic use, but manufacturers continue to push the product on us. This holiday season, is it possible to have a plastic-free celebration?

There’s no substitute for systemic policy change to regulate plastic use, but individual actions on a mass scale can have an impact. They can also be a dinner table conversation, potentially spurring cultural shifts and inspiring local activism.

“None of us voted for more plastic,” says Judith Enck, founder and president of Beyond Plastics. Enck, who served as regional administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009, adds that “the reason we have so much plastic is because there is a glut of fracked gas on the market.”

Enck says it’s entirely possible to have a plastic-free holiday season. She suggests forgoing disposable dinnerware for your Christmas, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa meal. “You can rent glassware and plates and beautiful reusable tablecloths and napkins from local vendors,” she says.

The food at your holiday dinner table needn’t come packaged in plastic either. Challenge yourself to purchase ingredients from your local farmers market using cotton tote bags. Produce that is locally grown is generally seasonal, tastier, has a lower carbon footprint, and is often pesticide-free or organic.

Purchase drinks for your holiday dinner in glass bottles. Most wine is already sold in glass, but even for teetotalers, it’s entirely possible to purchase drinks packaged in glass bottles or cardboard boxes.

According to Enck, “materials like paper, cardboard, metal, and glass… can be made of recycled material and actually does get recycled when you put it in your recycling bin” — unlike plastic. Most plastic is never recycled, no matter how diligent you are about cleaning and disposing of it in your recycling bins.

Gift-giving is particularly fraught with plastic. Mass-produced toys, clothes, and gadgets are either made from plastic or wrapped in it. Enck’s organization offers a handy online guide for plastic-free gifting, like giving memberships in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Most local communities, including cities, have local farmers who offer such memberships.

“Consider giving experiences rather than material products,” she adds, like “taking little kids to a matinee movie, giving your aunts and uncles tickets to a concert or a play, or giving busy parents a couple coupons that you’ll go and babysit their kids on a Saturday night.”

Memberships to museums, botanical gardens, and zoos are also excellent alternatives to plastic products. A gift certificate for a massage or yoga class for a busy working parent is likely to be received with far more gratitude than yet another trinket they don’t need.

If you feel compelled to buy a product, there are sustainable alternatives. Consider shopping at a thrift store to give an old product new life and save it from the landfill. (Vintage items are always fashionable!) Find your local “Buy Nothing” groups and post a request for lightly used items as gifts.

If you must purchase new gifts, consider plastic-free options. Clothing in particular can be sustainable if it’s made with natural fibers such as cotton, wool, or silk. Avoid clothes with labels marked polyester, poly-blend, nylon, acrylic, or microfiber. Synthetic clothes are notorious for shedding microplastics that end up in our blood stream and oceans.

Remember to use recyclable gift wrap, wrapping paper alternatives like tea towels or old cookie tins, or simply reuse last year’s wrapping.

Most importantly, make your plastic-free (or plastic-light) holiday a talking point at the dinner table and when exchanging gifts. These conversations can lead to real change: Regulations such as California’s new plastic bag ban and Georgia’s plastic food packaging ban are set to take effect next year, and are the result of dedicated public activism.

Make a New Year’s resolution to commit to political action against plastic in 2026.

Sonali Kolhatkar is host and executive producer of Rising Up With Sonali, an independent, subscriber-based syndicated TV and radio show. 

NOTE: Comments posted to this blog page are for information only. The opinions of the author are not necessarily the opinions of this newspaper, its staff or its advertisers.

When Melissa Edwards was a student at Riverhead High School, she dreamed of this exact moment. Being a standout athlete for the Blue Waves, excelling at softball and field hockey, she was always around the athletic department. She envied William Groth, Riverhead’s athletic director at the time, and thought about how amazing it would be to have that job one day.

Flash forward 24 years later and, effective Dec. 1, Ms. Edwards was officially named director of health, physical education and athletics at Riverhead Central Schools.

“When I saw the position open up, I knew I had to throw my hat in the ring,” Ms. Edwards said. “When you love athletics and you love education and you love being around kids, there’s no job better. It’s my dream job. And most importantly, Riverhead is home.”

After a lengthy interview process in the spring with Bob Hagen, Riverhead’s new superintendent of schools, and the board of education, seeing her phone ring with his name plastered on the screen this summer instantly brought mixed feelings.

“He started talking about how much of a great candidate I was and saying all these nice things about me,” Ms. Edwards said. “Listening to all this, I was waiting for the ‘but.’ I had already programmed myself to accept not getting the position that I didn’t realize, there was no ‘but.’ He just offered me the job.”

After graduating from Riverhead in 2001, Ms. Edwards starred for Springfield College in softball, playing catcher. She smacked 26 home runs in her collegiate career, which set a school record at the time. Following her playing career, she coached at the college level in the Boston area before coming back to Long Island.

“My whole family is here,” Ms. Edwards said. “Family always pulls you back, and that’s exactly what keeps me here today.”

Ms. Edwards accepted a position to coach Pierson in softball and field hockey. During her time there, the field hockey team won a New York State Championship for the first time in school history, and the softball team made it to the state championships three years in a row.

“It was a crazy time because once we started getting success in softball and field hockey, other teams started following suit,” she said. “Baseball started getting good, soccer, every sport wanted that taste of success. At that point, winning becomes the expectation, which is exactly the mentality I want to bring to Riverhead.”

In 2013, Ms. Edwards got an opportunity to head into the administrative field, accepting the assistant athletic director position at McGann-Mercy, a private school in Riverhead. That assistant tag didn’t last long as she fully took over the program shortly after. She held the position until the school closed its doors in 2018.

“While I was at Mercy, I realized this is the job I was meant to do,” Ms. Edwards said. “The opportunity to make an impact on kids across the board and give them a true chance at success was so fulfilling. I wanted nothing more than to do it again.”

She decided to go back to school and received her master’s degree in physical education from Adelphi University. Edwards then accepted a teaching job at Wantagh while being the assistant softball coach for a few years before most recently heading to East Hampton High School to coach their softball team. 

“No matter where I went, I always wanted to come back home,” Ms. Edwards said. “I live in Riverhead. I was born in Riverhead. This was always my end goal.”

When Hans Wiederkehr, Riverhead’s interim athletic director, first heard of the hiring and met Ms. Edwards, he knew instantly she was the right person for the job. 

“Energy,” Mr. Wiederkehr said. “If you don’t have energy in this position, you’re done. And if it’s not positive energy, it’s even worse. She has the energy, and she legitimately wants the best for Riverhead athletics. It’s not just talk. Nobody wants this more than her.”

Mr. Wiederkehr will stay on board to help with the transition and to build off of what’s been done already. The main focus has been on youth sports. In partnership with the booster clubs, youth sporting opportunities have skyrocketed in Riverhead.

There’s football, soccer, basketball, lacrosse — anything youth-related, it’s been started. Most recently, there’s been an emphasis on kid wrestling taking root again.

“Our buildings are full with kids’ sports every day of the week,” Mr. Wiederkehr said, showing off a detailed sheet on his desk. “Parents have stepped up. There’s many volunteers that are committed to turning things around, and both of us are committed to helping do that.”

Another thing Ms. Edwards plans on tackling is the playing fields. 

“We want to make this place pristine and top-notch like our athletes deserve here,” she said. “We’re working hard with the grounds crew to clean this place up. Every day, we have a new project.”

To Ms. Edwards, the budget cuts excuse is gone. There are no more excuses. Riverhead will succeed.

“The fact of the matter is I care,” she said. “This is my home. I know all these long-time Riverhead families. I want the best for this town, and I believe in this town. Riverhead athletics is changing. We’re already seeing major progress. All I want to do is foster that success and make it an expectation.”

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Macalester College women’s basketball team played a hard-fought MIAC game against Carleton College, with the Knights edging the Scots, 49-47 Wednesday night in the Leonard Center. Macalester is now 1-8 overall and 0-3 in conference play, while Carleton improves to 4-4, 1-2 MIAC.

Macalester opened with an 11-4 run that saw senior forward Ellie Corbett (Austin, Texas/James Bowie) score four points and junior guard Acacia Edmond (Houston, Texas/Shadow Creek) drain a three-pointer. Carleton responded with eight straight points to take a 12-11 edge before sophomore guard Emma Karlin (Rockville, Md./Richard Montgomery) restored the lead for the Scots with a basket with less than a minute left in the quarter. After a Knights’ free throw tied the score, junior guard Mary Daley (Cumberland, R.I./Bishop Feehan) scored at the end of the quarter for a 15-13 Macalester lead.

Carleton scored first in the second quarter to tie the score, but two Daley free throws and an 18-foot jumper by senior forward Brooke Boroughs (Monroe, Wash./Monroe) put the Scots on top, 19-15. After the Knights tied the score at 19-19, sophomore forward Cady Davis (Minneapolis, Minn./Roosevelt) made two free throws for a 21-19 Macalester lead heading into the halftime break. The Scots compensated for poor shooting from the field by making all six of their free throws compared to 1-of-4 for Carleton in the first half.

Both offenses came alive in the third quarter. Taylor Dente opened the period with a three to give the Knights the lead, but an 8-0 run sparked by four points from junior guard Sydnee Smith (Gainesville, Va./Patriot) put Macalester back on top, 29-22. After a Knights’ free throw, first year guard Megan Matthews (Boulder, Colo./Boulder) and Dente exchanged threes to make the score 32-26. Carleton outscored the Scots, 7-2 over the remainder of the quarter to reduce the lead to one, 34-33 heading into the fourth.

Davis opened the final period with a basket, but the Knights tallied the next four points to take a 37-36 edge with 6:05 to play. Sophomore forward Samantha Smith (Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont) broke the scoring drought for Macalester with a three for a 39-37 advantage. Davis, who grabbed an offensive rebound before Samantha Smith’s three, made a basket of her own to make the score 41-37. Liesl McCallum answered for Carleton at the four-minute mark to cut the lead to 41-39. A minute later, two Knights’ free throws tied the score again, 41-41, then another free throw and a basket by McCallum put Carleton up, 44-41.

With under two minutes to play, first year guard Faith Accardo (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Oaks Christian) heated up, draining two three-pointers around a basket by Addy Huss for a 47-46 advantage. A foul was called on Macalester with 8.1 seconds remaining, and McCallum made both free throws to give the lead back to Carleton, 48-47. With 4.7 seconds left, it appeared that Samantha Smith made a three-pointer from the corner, but the official ruled that she stepped out of bounds before the shot. Huss made 1-of-2 from the line after being fouled, but a desperation three at the buzzer was off the mark.

Davis led Macalester with eight points to go with seven rebounds, as all 10 players who played scored for the Scots. Matthews had seven points and five rebounds, while Daley finished with six points, eight rebounds and three assists. Corbett registered four blocks to go with four points and four rebounds. Huss, who entered the game with a MIAC-best scoring average of 22.4 points per game, and McCollum each scored 17 points.

Macalester returns to action in 2026 with a home MIAC game against Saint Mary’s University on Saturday, Jan. 3. The game starts at 1:00 p.m. in the Leonard Center.

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Community members gathered in Stockton Wednesday evening to support one another, loving their neighbor. 

It was called Heal Stockton, where Stockton residents and nonprofits met to grieve, heal, and process the tragedy that struck families in the city they love.

“All these people are concerned and came out on their own dime, their own time,” Armster Hampton, Community Partnership for Families Youth case manager, said. “And they love Stockton like I love Stockton. And I feel good about that.”

A common theme throughout the night was hugs, healing, and having safe spaces to talk through the trauma. 

“Heal Stockton is important because what we’re trying to do is bring a level of peace and solace and hope to the community,” Fortier-Brigham said. “And also discuss different ways to work through trauma and stress, especially in times like this, what we’ve just experienced in our city. People need to know that there’s hope.”

It was hosted by Victory in Praise Church at their community development center. Lillana Fortier-Brigham is a middle school teacher and the church’s drama director.

“As long as humankind has been on this earth, there have always been horrible things that have happened,” Fortier-Brigham said. “We have treated each other horribly and I believe that it takes a relationship with, the most powerful, all-powerful God for anybody to really be able to reconcile with such, it seems like it’s too much for one person to handle, so, you need a church family to kind of surround you and events like this help us to see that there is help out there. There’s help for you.”

There were members of the medical community, suicide prevention, counseling groups, therapy dogs, Stockton’s Office of Violence Prevention, and a Stockton youth sports program, Turlock Sports Park.

“I’m feeling devastated but just leaning on God in this time,” David McCants, Turlock Sports Park site supervisor, said. “Just trying to make a positive impact to the youth and just continue to shine my light and bring positive energy to the community each and every day.”

Cleveland Remembers volunteers were giving away gun locks and helping community members craft ‘soul boxes’, origami boxes made in memory of people killed by gun violence, including the three precious children killed in their city.

“I feel terrible,” Sharon Jarvis, Cleveland School Remembers volunteer, said. “I made one of the soul boxes myself today, for one of the little 8-year-olds who was killed and when I looked at her name and the paper. Her sister was describing her, it just, well, I’m getting emotional now, I mean, I didn’t even know this child but it’s just horrendous that this still is happening in our society and it’s still happening in California, even though we have some of the best gun violence prevention laws in the nation. We need our national laws to outlaw some of these things and Congress is doing nothing about it.”

Jarvis said Cleveland School Remembers is pushing for a local law that would not allow police to buy guns from dealers who have a bad record of selling to people who shouldn’t have guns.

Hampton, who works with 16 to 24-year-old men, helping them get important documents like their California ID card, birth certificate, and social security card, said he is saddened and disheartened. He is the father of six children and grandfather to 11 grandchildren.

“As a community, I’d like to think this is our George Floyd moment where we like put our foot down,” Hampton said. “We’ve had enough. And I’d like to see some changes come from the tragedy. My heart goes out to the family of the kids and I just pray it never happens again.”

With the information that it could take months for law enforcement to solve the shooting case, Stockton residents believe people know what happened and are encouraging their neighbors to say something.

“My thoughts on that are that people are not coming forward with information that some of them have,” Jarvis said. “And I think that they are terrified that they will become a victim of gun violence if they speak up and give information to the sheriff. It’s a very difficult position that law enforcement is in, trying to solve this and I hope with having the FBI involved and the Stockton Police Department helping the county sheriff that they’ll be able to resolve this but it’s obviously not going to happen quickly.”

Hampton is also urging his community to be more vigilant and speak up.

“We shouldn’t be scared to come out of our houses and have birthday parties for our children,” Hampton said. “A few people shouldn’t spoil that for us. I believe, as a community, we have to be more vigilant. If you know something, say something. Don’t be afraid.”

Fortier-Brigham said she believes that people know who was involved in the community. She is also calling on the local Stockton leaders to stop arguing and make changes for the young people in the community.

“What I think is true is that the courage that it takes for the people who know to step forward and to say what happened is what is needed. You can be a part of that justice,” Fortier-Brigham said. “If you know what happened and you know where this came from and you know how it occurred, step forward. And speak the truth. And free yourself from holding that secret. And that way, all of those families’ lives can be impacted for the better because they want to know what happened to their babies. They want to know what happened to the young people that just came for a birthday party.”

The church also provides a prayer room, where people from the community can come and process their emotions of what took place in their city, to find healing and peace amidst the pain.

If you have any information regarding the mass shooting that occurred in the 1900 block of Lucille Avenue in the city of Stockton on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office is asking you to please share it with them.

• Send an anonymous tip by texting the word “SJSOTIP” then your message to 847411, or
• Submit a tip online by visiting our TIP411 page by clicking here, or
• Call us at (209) 468-5087, or
• Call Stockton Crime Stoppers at (209) 946-0600.