Community

Mattituck-Laurel: Candle sale by PTSA; high-achieving students leave the nest

Earthquakes! Hurricanes! I hope September brings some calm weather and a chance for local residents to enjoy roads that are less traveled and beaches that are quiet and peaceful. Thank you to our summer visitors for coming here and frequenting local businesses and restaurants all season long. Enjoy the Labor Day weekend and the last hooray of summer. See you next year!

The PTSA will host a Yankee Candle sale at the very start of school this year. Information and catalogs will be available during Back-to-School Nights and will allow individual students to earn money for their specific grade levels to offset the cost of upcoming activities and events.

The Olsen-Harbich family has much to talk about this week when it comes to their “empty nest.” Their oldest daughter, Emily, a 2007 Mattituck High School graduate and recent grad of SUNY/Syracuse College of Environmental Science and Forestry, is now headed to Africa for two years with the Peace Corps. She’ll be working on a reforestation project in Cameroon, a small country just south of Nigeria. For her first three months there, she’ll be involved in a cultural and language immersion program. Peter Olsen-Harbich has also left the nest to begin his sophomore year at SUNY/Geneseo as a history major in the honors program. Peter is a 2010 MHS graduate. Needless to say, their parents are extremely proud of both of them.

Happy anniversary wishes to William and Evelyn Raynor of Harvest Lane, Mattituck, who will celebrate 49 years together Sept. 1. Also toasting their anniversary on the first of the month are Karena and Dan Letteriello.

Birthday balloons will fly over the homes of the following this week: Mary Berdinka on Sept. 1; Kayla Gableman and Abby Gannon on the 5th; Lauren Hygom on the 6th ; and Renee Kelly, Barbara MacLeod and Austin Gao on the 7th.

Most of our local students have either returned to college by now or are leaving for the first time. Work hard, make new friends and remember your roots! Mattituck and Laurel are only a phone call, text, email or tweet away.
Due to the Labor Day holiday, I have an early deadline of Friday for the Sept. 8 paper. If you have any news, call me ASAP so I can include it in my column.