Ask a teen about e-cigarettes and the chances are good they will describe them as a safe substitute for smoking. With a fruit flavored vapor smell and the appearance of a thumb drive, they are being used in school hallways, bathrooms and at home. Their use has become cool, according to Bob Collett, Director of the Cape Cod Regional Tobacco Control Program. "Kids believe the false notion that an e-cigarett...

Harwich Elementary School Castle in the Clouds will celebrate its 25th birthday this spring as a landmark playground on Cape Cod. Designed by Robert Leathers and Associates and built by the Harwich community in 1994, this vintage play structure has served our children well. Current HES parents and grandparents remember vividly the excitement of this community build project which has stood as a faithful frie...

Colette Cummings, who co-owns Ducks in the Window on Main Street, Chatham with her husband, Rob Foster, used to have a leisurely routine during these late fall mornings. She had plenty of time to exercise and tend to the needs of the couple’s three dogs before opening the store for customers at 10 a.m. Off-season, Cummings employs two part-time workers, down from the nine-to-10 employees of the summer. But ...

EAST HARWICH — Isabelle Monteleone will become the Cape’s latest centenarian on Saturday, Dec. 15. Earlier this fall, 60 of her family, friends, caregivers, and other acquaintances came to her daughter’s East Harwich home to preemptively celebrate, with displays of memorabilia from the phases of her life and a special a video-recorded birthday greeting from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, arranged for b...

Staying healthy during the holidays is sometimes a challenge, and the stress of the season can often take a physical toll. A recent hour-long workshop at the Brooks Free Library in Harwich led by Deborah Ennis, a local licensed mental health counselor, focused on reducing stress through the use of mindfulness. "There is so much hype with the holiday season," Ennis noted. "We may take on more than we can ...

On Nov. 14, Monomoy Regional High School held its annual Breakfast of Excellence to honor high-achieving students and alumni. This celebratory breakfast featured awards presented to students for outstanding performance on MCAS and to AP Scholar award winners as well as Adams Scholarship winners. Adams Scholarship winners 2018 (students who scored in the top 20 percent of MRHS testers in math, ELA and STE combi...

Last summer a model scout hosted 12 young aspiring models in her Orleans home for a masterclass or boot camp for models. The girls’ experience in the camp is now an addictive 10-part docuseries on Snapchat. “You’re coming in as my little chickadee babies and you’re going to leave as skilled models that can rule that runway,” scout Erin Scimeca tells the models in the first episode of “Camp Runway” produced by ...

NORTH CHATHAM – When seniors find themselves needing additional health care support, assisted living or even nursing care, it’s an emotionally challenging time of life. But it’s even more stressful for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender elders who also worry about discrimination or harassment. Broad Reach Healthcare, which operates Liberty Commons and the Victorian assisted living residence, is establishin...

Larry Dapsis has taken the message about preventing tick-borne diseases to school classrooms, to civic groups, and even to outdoor fairs. Now he’s taking it to computers, tablets and smartphones. “My job is to reach as many people as I can,” said Dapsis, the Barnstable County entomologist and deer tick project coordinator for the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. “I thought, as much as I get out and do public sp...

CHATHAM – After more than 30 years in town, the Organic Market will close its store here on Nov. 3 in order to concentrate on its other markets in Dennis Port and at Mashpee Commons. “We're really sad to not be in that location anymore, but really excited about what the future holds for us,” said Rory Eames, president and owner of the company. Prepared foods have become a major part of the Organic Market's ...

People who teach sometimes dislike the month of August, because their days back in the classroom are inching closer. For Joan M. Maloney of Chatham, Labor Day weekend meant that she had to leave Chatham and return to her work-a-day world as a professor at Salem State University in Salem. Maloney retired on Jan. 1, 1999, and on the first Labor Day when she didn’t have to return to work, she staged a kind of cel...

It was 100 years ago this month that, in the waning days of World War I, what was known as the Spanish flu killed between 20 and 50 million people around the world. And Chatham was not immune. All told, 175 cases of influenza were reported in Chatham during the fall of 1918, according to the annual town report. Things got so bad that on Oct. 1, 1918, the Chatham Monitor reported, that “the public schools, O...