Volunteers at the Family Pantry of Cape Cod have no trouble explaining why clients are treated with such respect. For some volunteers, humility is a matter of faith. For others, it's easy to empathize with people who've had a financial crisis or other emergency. And for Family Pantry worker Lisa Joyce, it's because she's walked in those shoes before. Joyce and her husband owned a construction company for many ...

Once upon a time, in the mid-1990s, two founders of the Wheelock Family Theatre in Boston had a conversation. Jane Staab had just finished a successful production of her original musical “The Secret Garden,” based on the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, when Susan Kosoff mentioned that her favorite book by that author was not “The Secret Garden,” but “A Little Princess, Sara Crewe.” “I had to admit th...

First, consider a few numbers. A decade ago, the Family Pantry of Cape Cod had an average of 621 client visits each month, distributing about 20,000 bags of food in the course of a year. Last year, it handed out more than 55,000 bags of food, seeing an average of 1,149 clients every month. Consider just one more figure. As of the end of October, the Family Pantry had seen a jump of more than 13 percent in t...

Nostalgia can be a powerful force. It not only drives the storyline in the classic movie “A Christmas Story,” but it’s also the reason so many people watch the film on television annually. In fact, “A Christmas Story” is such a slice of Americana it received the ultimate distinction in 2012 when the film was included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, ...

Amanda Kosloski of Harwich had been ringing with the Handbell Choir at the Pilgrim Congregational Church in Harwich Port for about 13 years when she and a church group went to hear the Back Bay Ringers perform in West Barnstable. That day in August 2014 was the first time Kosloski had heard professional ringers perform, and when she learned the group was holding tryouts for new members, she said, “I have a mus...

The 13th annual Christmas Cavalcade for the Homeless kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at the Mansion Ballroom at Ocean Edge in Brewster on Sunday, Dec. 11. After many years at the Jailhouse in Orleans, organizer/host/master of ceremonies Chandler Travis had to scramble to find a new venue when the Jailhouse turned their old function room into a brewery. Luckily, Ocean Edge came through, says Travis, after a considera...

Everyone deserves a chance. In fact, everyone deserves a chance to dance. On Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 3 and 4, young dancers who have been given just that chance will gather at Betsy's Ballroom in Yarmouth for two dance performances as the Icons and Idols event raises funds for the Chance to Dance program based at Chatham's Studio 878. The pursuit of ballroom training is prohibitively expensive for many y...

If you wander into the Creative Arts Center in Chatham to see the artwork, you might depart without ever realizing that below the multiple galleries on the first floor is what one student recently described as “the little gem in town.” The basement is the place you will find award-winning potter Chelsie Starace teaching a pottery class in hand-building and wheel-throwing pots and other ceramic objects. On a re...

HARWICH — When it comes to volunteer management, the Family Pantry has a simple strategy for each of the more than 500 people who lend their time and talent. “They need to feel better when they leave than when they came here,” Executive Director Christine Menard said. Thanks to thoughtful organization, clear direction and good management, volunteers keep coming back. “That's why we're as good as we are,” sh...

For lovers of dance, the holiday season is incomplete without a performance of “The Nutcracker” to set the sugarplums dancing in one's head and the Christmas spirit soaring. This season, a special treat at Tilden Arts Center, located at Cape Cod Community College in Barnstable, will feature a pair of local sisters giving a Cape Cod seaside twist to a holiday classic written by one of Chatham's own bestselling aut...

James P. Byrne’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s "Richard III" at Cape Cod Theatre Company’s intimate Arts Center stage is a version for puppets. But these are not wooden puppets; rather they are half human and half puppet talking heads. Human faces of Richard and his henchmen loom above foreshortened and nicely costumed arms and bodies manipulated by the actors. There are also life-sized actors who are not puppets. ...

The holiday season starts in earnest this week, and with it comes the hunt for the perfect toys for the youngsters in your life. For too many, however, the hunt is limited or nonexistent. Fortunately, there are a number of local nonprofit organizations who aim to make sure that every child in the area has a happy holiday. In Chatham, Harwich and Orleans, locations are available where residents who wish to give...