HARWICH – The Monomoy boys varsity lacrosse team was celebrating Monday night not only their big Senior Night win against Sturgis West but an even bigger victory against the D-Y Dolphins that gave the team its first-ever spot in the playoffs. Fresh from their commanding Senior Night win against Sturgis West, the Monomoy Sharks played host to the D-Y Dolphins, seeking to avenge an earlier season loss, and boy d...

HARWICH – Late-game heroics led the Monomoy softball team to an exciting come-from-behind victory against Falmouth on Monday, with the Sharks defeating the Clippers 3-2 in seven innings. It was the battle of two similarly named pitchers as Monomoy's Mollie Charest duked it out against Falmouth's Molly Bruce, with Charest earning the W with 13 strikeouts and only three hits allowed. Falmouth took the lead in...

"The Miracle Worker," which opened on May 11 at the Chatham Drama Guild, is both interesting and insightful. Directed by Pam Banas, the play is set in Alabama during the 1880s and is based upon the true story of 8-year-old Helen Keller – blind, deaf, and mute since infancy – and her new teacher, Annie Sullivan. Thrown into tantrums, rage and violence as a result of her inability to communicate, Helen is in dang...

Frank, Charley and Mary have been friends for decades, friends through thick and thin, from poverty to fame and success. “Who’s like us? Damn few!” We first meet them in 1976, and it’s soon apparent there has been some kind of falling out between the three. How did they get here? In Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” this trio merrily and sometimes not so merrily go back in time stopping every few years u...

CHATHAM – Watching just the trailer for “I'll Push You,” a documentary that screens at the Chatham Orpheum Theater May 24, conveys the emotional depth of the experience Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray went through when they traveled the El Camino de Santiago in 2014. Filming the two friends' journey also changed the life of director Terry Parish. “When you're on the journey with them you are also a pilgrim of...

First, let’s state the obvious. The possibility of a school shooting on the Lower Cape, however remote, is terrifying. And it’s sickening that, in this age, we’re holding active shooter drills in our schools and training the nurses to apply tourniquets. But mass shootings happen, and ignoring that possibility is irresponsible. If you’re tempted to invoke the “it can’t happen here” perspective, know that you’re...

Club Helps Out Learning Program Editor: Once again, the Harwich Evening Women’s Club has come through for the families of the Monomoy Cooperative Learning Programs, a self-sustaining extended day program. Through their generous donation for the summer program, several families were able to receive financial assistance to attend the seven-week program. I would like to thank them on behalf of the families t...

Daffodils in the middle of May. But no tulips yet. I measure the march of spring by an immovable date on the calendar, specifically my birthday in the second week in May. The tulips should be up now. They are not. Sometimes they are passed. I cannot even find them. Meanwhile, daffodils are typically out around Easter. Whenever that is. They’re out then, in one fashion or another, in April. So now I am all s...

The Cape and Islands’ chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE, honored 20 small businesses in its annual awards breakfast last Thursday. Among the honorees were Puritan Clothing, Chatham Cookware, Brax Landing and Talking Threads Custom Embroidery. SCORE, whose volunteers provide free mentoring for entrepreneurs, small business owners and non-profits, presented their “Better Mousetrap” awa...

ORLEANS — Fifty years ago in this town, a mother whose son had aged out of special education services founded Nauset Workshop to provide opportunities for people with disabilities. This week, the organization, now known as Cape Abilities, announced its return to Orleans, having purchased the Universal Masonic Lodge as one of its centers for services. “It is a wonderful legacy that we are honored to continue,...

ORLEANS — Town meeting said no to a $75,000 survey of Beach Road that would have allowed further consideration of laying out the route to Nauset Beach as a public way, potentially building a “Safe Pedestrian Sidewalk” along it. On a voice vote, the petitioned article fell short of the required three-fourths majority. “Beach Road is bigger than the residents on Beach Road,” Katy Day told town meeting as she u...

HARWICH – A SWAT team converged on a Long Pond Drive home late Tuesday following a report of gunshots being fired, but the incident turned out to involve a backfiring motorcycle and several “highly intoxicated” occupants of the home. A 911 caller to the Massachusetts State Police at about 9:30 p.m. reported a domestic incident at the residence involving knives and a gun; the caller also reported that shots had...

HARWICH — Ed McManus squeaked past a serious challenge from political newcomer Thomas Sherry in Tuesday's annual election, winning a seat on the board of selectmen by just 21 votes. Sherry, asked Tuesday night if he was considering a recount, said he was not sure and would have to mull it over. “Right now I just want to thank the people who worked so hard for me,” he said. McManus received 901 votes with...

Retirement Funding, Library Improvements, Senior Center Study OK'd By Town Meeting CHATHAM – Environmental awareness triumphed over the decades-old tradition of brightly colored balloons decorating Kate Gould Park during summer Chatham Band concerts Monday, as annual town meeting voters approved a ban on the sale of inflated balloons beginning in September. Voters also embraced a bylaw banning marijuana est...

CHATHAM – Despite Thursday's annual election having the highest number of contested races in several years, fund raising by candidates fell below the three previous elections. According to campaign finance reports filed last Wednesday, candidates raised a total of $9,873 this year. That's roughly half of last year's $19,601 total raised by two candidates running for a single seat on the board of selectmen. Thr...