ORLEANS – The COVID-19 pandemic is altering First Night Chatham, but it isn’t stopping the Lower Cape Figure Skating Association from holding its annual Holidays on Ice show at the Charles Moore Arena in Orleans.   However, this year’s show will look a little different — it’s going to be a virtual event featuring masked participants.   Forty-three figure skaters ranging from ages 6 to 17 participated ...

CHATHAM – Something wasn’t right. The screaming pain Paul Borde could feel in his lower back was starting to affect his daily life. The discomfort was really unbearable for Borde, who struggled to sleep and walk throughout the summer of 2019. Perhaps worst of all, the pain hammering away at the bottom of his vertebrae was hindering Borde’s golf game, which really sounded alarms for the avid golfer. “I thoug...

Winter sports have gotten the green light at Monomoy and Nauset Regional High Schools, though Monomoy's season will see a bit of a delay due to the school's recent closure in the wake of new cases of COVID-19 among students. Originally, winter sports were supposed to start with tryouts and practices on Dec. 14, but two positive cases at MRHS necessitated the closure of the school until after the holiday break....

As I sit before my screen, fingers hovering above the keys, myriad song lyrics ping-pong through my mind. One from Eminem about having one shot, one opportunity. One from “Hamilton” about not throwing away my shot. Even one from Sinatra about doing it my way. But the truth is, while I'm excited about my next chapter, turning the page is also bittersweet. A little more than five years ago, I arrived on the Lowe...

A recent uptick of coronavirus cases throughout Massachusetts and specifically on Cape Cod has led local public libraries to cut back on services for the foreseeable future. Brooks Free Library in Harwich, Eldredge Public Library in Chatham and Snow Library in Orleans all recently decided to halt in-person browsing and begin offering only curbside services. “It was in the interest of community safety, both for...

CHATHAM – Does a Christmas tree have to be a tree? Not if it's festive enough. The Chatham Merchants Association and Chamber of Commerce is assembling a “buoy tree” to bring the holiday spirit back to the Sears Park triangle. For many years the small downtown park hosted the town Christmas tree, a large evergreen donated by a resident annually and festively decorated by the park department. It was the fo...

On the afternoon of Nov. 13, a Friday, Jan Hopkins of Harwich logged into a Facebook group called “Chatham Spread the Word,” and made an unusual offer. She said she would make “memory bears” from a lost loved one’s clothing as keepsakes. She would not charge for her services but she asked that the recipient donate time or money to the Chatham Angel Fund or the Chatham Food Pantry. The reaction to her offer ...

Rob Ritchey of Chatham, who has just released his debut novel, “Marriette” (West Barnstable Press, 2020), has an unusual background for a novelist: he is a podiatrist who recently returned to painting portraits. “I grew up in the Boston area being an artist, but then life pushed me along other paths,” he said in an email interview last week. “I was a machinist for a while after college and then on to medical s...

The pages of this week’s paper are filled with distressing news about the pandemic. We’re in the midst of what public health officials call a “surge upon a surge,” with new cases spread at Thanksgiving gatherings being added to the seasonal surge associated with the onset of cold weather. But at long last, after months of bleak uncertainty, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccines are being rushed t...

CHATHAM – In the timeless classic “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the main character, Scout, tells her brother during a conversation, “I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.” Inspired by that motto, the Rev. Buster Keith Waters made his life's mission helping others. Now he's brought his passions to the Cape, specifically to Chatham Airport, where he's passing on his love of flying, and urging local youth to aim...

The Chatham Turkey Trot is a Thanksgiving morning tradition and the organizers and originators of the event are looking forward to keeping the 2020 event running, albeit with a new format that turns the run/walk into a DIY event. Costumes are still encouraged, as are donations to the Lower Cape Outreach Council. The event first kicked off in 2005, started by Mary Parsons and Linda Redding, who drew inspiration...

CHATHAM – If you use the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app, you might have noticed some new alerts. Along with the familiar blue square with a white fin indicating a white shark sighting are new yellow boxes that when clicked, offer information on tagged sharks detected by real-time acoustic receivers. The new feature officially launched on Sept. 14, allowing users to access real-time detectio...

Parents Given Option Of Continuing Remote Learning   HARWICH – While many school districts are preparing plans for three possibilities – a full return to school, a partial or hybrid return, and the continuation of remote learning – the 47-page draft Monomoy plan only includes a hybrid learning plan and plans to shift back to remote learning if necessary. A full reopening, said Superintendent of Schools Scot...

EVERYWHERE – What do you do when a global pandemic wipes out everything you hold dear – your job, your home, your future prospects? Well, if you’re Scott Gerke, you sell off pretty much everything you own and hit the road. Gerke, from Key West, Fla., had been working as a professional DJ, event host, and YouTuber when the pandemic hit. By the end of March, every one of his future gigs was canceled. With no pro...

CHATHAM – While fog kept many folks onshore last weekend, there were some who were undaunted by it and the winds that whipped the waters off of Chatham into frothy whitecaps. To the members of the Monomoy Yacht Club, conditions might not have been perfect, but they were good enough to get in a Sunday afternoon sailboat race. A little more than half a dozen intrepid sailors and their crew headed out of Stage Ha...

ORLEANS – As Maria DeOliveira stared into the hold behind the bow of the US Coast Guard vessel 36500 from its berth at Rock Harbor, she couldn’t hold back her quiet tears. It was aboard this very boat that her father, Aguinol B. DeOliveira, was rescued along with 31 fellow survivors of the famous Pendleton wreck in 1952. Until 2016, DeOliveira, who lives in Dorchester, had no idea the boat was still in existen...