It was a struggle, but with support from dozens of Cape Cod Chronicle readers – and a remarkable last-minute donation from an anonymous contributor – the 2016 “Helping Neighbors” campaign to benefit the Family Pantry met its fundraising goal. With the tally still about $4,000 short, the secret donor pledged the funds necessary to bring the campaign to its $60,000 target. The contributor, identified only as a N...

CHATHAM — In what promises to be a memorable evening, the Chatham Orpheum Theater will hold a special screening of the new feature film “Patriots Day” on Jan. 13 as part of a fundraiser for the Arrendondo Family Foundation. The evening features a reception and post-show question and answer session with authors Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge. The two wrote the bestselling book “Boston Strong,” the inspiration f...

CHATHAM – The following council on aging events are scheduled during January. Most take place at the Stony Hill Road senior center and require registration or reservations. Transportation is available for most programs. For information or to register, call the COA at 508-945-5190. Monday, Jan. 9, CCRTA Travel Training Presentation, 10:30 a.m. Paula George from the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority will be do...

Sharks.  Orcas. Bridges. A new fire station.  A new reef.   These are just some of the events of the past year.  Relive the events of 2016 in our year-end photo gallery here .

Chatham, Harwich and Orleans are meccas for art lovers. In 2016 both homegrown talent and visiting artists livened up the painting, photography, film, theater, music and literary scenes. Here is a look at some of the year’s highlights. Chatham was abuzz as “The Finest Hours,” a tale of the February, 1952 sinking of the SS Pendleton, premiered at the Chatham Orpheum Theater on Jan. 28. The Disney movie was film...

One year ago, The Force Awakened. The first new “Star Wars” film since George Lucas’ ill-conceived prequels arrived with mostly positive reviews. Though I loved seeing old characters like Han Solo and Princess (now General) Leia as well as the terrific new character Rey, the movie itself – for all its good intentions – felt a bit too familiar; too much a retelling of the original 1977 film. Happily that’s not...

It's not usual for folks to have a few oysters with their beer. But what about oysters in their beer? A couple of Harwich residents are brewing up a special batch of holiday stout with Chatham oysters as the special ingredient. Devil's Purse Brewing Company's new Intertidal Oyster Stout, which will debut at a tasting event at Chatham Bars Inn Dec. 29, is enhanced by oysters from the Chatham Shellfish Compan...

“Everything She Wants” sings Sara Crewe’s father as he leaves her in Miss Minchin’s Boarding School. The Captain’s fortune will keep Sara in extreme comfort; she’ll indeed have everything she wants. Captain Crewe is going far away, back to India, where the two have lived for years. Crewe figures it’s time for Sara to get a proper education. It’s 1887, and in London the gulf between the rich and the poor is wide. ...

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, ...