The Daily Five: A Season of Giving and Cancellations

1. Today will be mostly sunny with a high of 44 degrees and an overnight low of 37 degrees. Winds will pick up considerably tonight and we could see a few showers, according to Weather.com.

2. All Old Lyme town committee meetings that would normally be on the schedule for the rest of the week have been cancelled, and no meetings will be held Monday evening or Tuesday, when town hall will be closed for the holiday. The Lyme Disease Support Group that meets tonight, however, is still on the calendar for 6:30 p.m. at Old Lyme Memorial Town Hall.  

3. The second annual East Lyme High School's Holiday Extravaganza, a telethon fundraiser to benefit Care & Share of East Lyme, will be held tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The entire event will be aired live on Channel 22 and webcast on the East Lyme School District's web site. To call and make a pledge, dial (860) 451-9484 or you can download the pledge form here.  

4. We have been totally blown away by the number of businesses that stepped forward to offer to serve as collection points for Patch's Operation Snuggle Newtown and overwhelmed by the number of bears donated to the cause. If you'd still like to donate, we'll be collecting until 2 p.m. today.

Thanks so much to all of you who joined this effort to offer comfort to children whose lives have been forever changed by the school shooting last Friday that shook the nation.

There's another opportunity to donate to help the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting this Saturday. Old Lyme EMS will be hitting the street, raising money for Newtown by asking people to “Fill the Boot.” Look for one of the ambulance members between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., on Halls Road in the vicinity of Big Y Supermarket and drop in a donation if you can. For more information about the “Fill the Boot,” please contact the Old Lyme EMS business office at (860) 434-0089. 

5. On Sunday, December 22, Lyme Social Services will be holding its first annual sundries drive at Lyme Public Hall, 249 Hamburg Road, Lyme from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. This is to meet the growing need by Lyme's poorer residents for costly items that they can't buy with food stamps.  

Items needed include bath soaps, hair products, skin creams, cloth grocery Bags, toothbrushes/toothpastes/floss, deodorants, any personal hygiene items, laundry detergents (not over 100 oz). Grocery or Wal-Mart gift cards and monetary donations to Lyme Emergency Fund are also welcome and would be much appreciated. No diapers, please.