The new backpacks are packed, pencils are sharpened, and most kids will soon be back at school. But there are steps parents can take now to help make the school year injury- and illness-free for their kids. Kathy Riley, the Harwich Elementary School Nurse and the nurse leader for the district, said the start of school is always a busy time in her office. “A lot of kids have trouble with transitions,” she sa...

SOUTH CHATHAM — Crossing the threshold of Baker’s Hardware on Main Street in South Chatham is akin to stepping into a bygone era. A little bell above the front door and a warm nod from the store’s owner, Bob Baker, greet you.  “We have a little bit of everything,” chuckles Baker, who enjoys stocking the store with childhood classics like Balsa wood glider planes. Batteries and light bulbs, paint brushes and te...

“We are either related to or we know probably 90 percent of the people here,” laughs Chatham native Winnie Lear.  Winnie and husband Bob, full time residents of Chatham's Old Village, are about as deeply involved in the community as two people can be. From the Chatham Conservation Foundation to the Chatham Historical Commission, the Eldredge Library board of trustees to the board of the Orpheum Theatre, from t...

There are plenty of good reasons to safeguard against tick bites, which can transmit babesiosis, anaplasmosis, tularemia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and, most commonly, Lyme disease. Researchers have now added another rare but potentially deadly disease to the list of tick-borne illnesses possible on Cape Cod. Deer ticks infected with the Powassan virus were recently found at various sites around Cape Cod...

A few years ago a couple came to Evelyn Doane, a sales associate in William Raveis Real Estate’s Chatham office, looking to buy their first house. “They fortunately had a good credit rating, same jobs for a number of years,” Doane recalled. The jobs were “not terribly well-paying, but a steady income.” While the couple qualified for a loan, they did not have money for a down payment for their dream house in...

As thousands celebrated the glorious Fourth at Chatham's recent Independence Day Parade, Helen and Irwin Sitkin of Chatham were celebrating their glorious Eleventh. The self-proclaimed snowbirds rose the morning of the parade and donned their red, white and blue Uncle Sam and Mrs. Uncle Sam costumes for the 11th consecutive year and helped spread patriotic cheer before, during and after the parade by posing for...

First, the bad news. Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is being diagnosed at a rate faster than any other cancer, and one person dies from the disease every 50 minutes. Of all the counties in Massachusetts, Barnstable County has the second highest number of melanoma diagnoses. The good news is that, with daily sunscreen protection, melanoma is largely preventable. And thanks to a grant through the ...

For many visitors to Cape Cod in the summertime, the issue of hunger might be limited to finding the best place for fried clams or a lobster roll. But for more than a few year-rounders, it's about where their child's next meal is coming from. As they've done in years past, the “Food 4 Kids” program will be providing USDA-subsidized free lunches to children in Chatham and Harwich as part of a federal effort to ...

Monomoy Regional Middle School Armstrong Awarded Fellowship Cherian Armstrong, teacher of p roject-based learning and MRMS librarian, was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities out of a field of 115 applicants. Armstrong will be participating in a seminar entitled “Philosophers of Education: Major Thinkers from the Enlightenment.” Students To Attend Academy Monomo...

At about seven every morning at this time of year, Timothy J. Kent, owner of Timothy J. Kent Landscape Company, arrives at his business in Commerce Park in South Chatham. During the next half hour or so his crew of 12 men and women, ranging in age from 25 to 56, will arrive. By 8 a.m. the crew has dispersed into nine trucks, each with its own assignment of lawns. Before the end of the workday, each crew will have...

Charles William “Bill” Burlin, Jr. of North Chatham, born in 1921, looks and acts decades younger than his 94 years. To what does he attribute his sharp mind, quick humor and steady step? “I have been very fortunate throughout my life on many different occasions,” he explains. “And I've also come up with a few habits and daily practices which I think have helped me to reach this age in such a good state of hea...

With the Zika virus continuing to generate headlines – and threatening to derail the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio – it's not hard to understand why local officials have had inquiries about the risk on Cape Cod. Public health officials and entomologists say they have received calls from Cape Codders concerned about contracting the Zika virus from mosquitoes. While the two species of mosquitoes that carry Zika a...