We received the final tally for the WGY Christmas Wish Minithon. And thanks to your generosity, Jay and Kendra Curtis, Curtis Lumber, Curtis Contractors, Kevin Clancy and Clancy Real Estate and Family Danz Heating and Cooling. We were able to raise over $126,000. And all of that, every single penny, goes right back out to more than 100 children's charities right here in the Capital Region. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
In Schenectady, students there, like in many other districts, have been learning remotely for this year. And something you may not know about distance learning is that the kids don't have to turn their cameras on. For some, it can be an invasion of their family's privacy, or they don't want other people seeing where they live, whatever the reason, it's optional. But it can be hard to teach to a blank screen, school pictures, or cartoon characters so, some teachers at Mont Pleasant Middle School want to give the kids some incentive to turn those cameras on, and get some face to face contact.
They want to print custom t-shirts, hoping to foster a sense of pride and school spirit. There is a go fund me page to help raise the money for the shirts, which will feature the schools clock tower and #schenectadystrong. They are hoping that sense of unity will encourage the kids to turn on their cameras and show off their school spirit.
You can donate to the GoFundMe here.
A guy in Northville has built an ice rink in his yard every year for the last 27 years, but this year, he really upped his game. He used to have problems with getting enough water for the ice... But he has since dug a second well on his property to do that. And a friend recently hooked him up with some old boards that had been sitting in storage from an unknown rink, somewhere.
So he got the boards assembled, filled the thing with ice, and realized, based on the signs for Price Chopper and Glens Falls National Bank, that he had just re-created the rink from the Glens Falls Civic Center, from the Adirondack Red Wings back in the 1990's.
But he didn't stop there. He also managed to get his hands on a Zamboni style ice cleaner from a school district.
He says all the work is worth it-its the ice hockey version of baseball's "field of dreams", and they have pickup hockey games all the time.