Gifts of our Facebook Feed: Mastic Beach Ambulance Company, William Floyd School District, Northport Main St. Group, Northport-East Northport Public Library

We know these are just a few of our neighbors who’ve been giving it their best to be of service with their Social Media time. We love to hear about more!

The Mastic Beach Ambulance company has been sharing all sorts of great stuff, including their own efforts to keep Long Islanders fed, as well as tended to in emergencies.

We thought it was them generating these great profiles of local EMTs. They’re still probably the easiest place to find them, but we’ve realized it was the William Floyd School District that was soliciting and sharing them.

Now, they’ve turned to highlighting their Class of 2020.

Meanwhile, the Northport Village and Local Business Community is a model we think every downtown should follow! This group lets small businesses post their wares and how they’re offering them, as well as all sorts of information critical to the community.

Finally, WE LOVE LIBRARIES! While missing their visitors dearly, they are continuing to do wonderful things for the community. Last time, we mentioned the 3D Printer Army helping make shields for first responders. Lately, we’ve simply been loving the Facebook Feeds.

While we highly recommend following all of Long Island’s libraries, the Northport-East Northport Public Library seems to really be on a roll lately. Follow their Facebook page, scroll down through the past few weeks — it’s wonderful…
 

Sending Our Love in a Letter…

“To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.” ~Phyllis Theroux

Truthfully, ever since Sandy we have had a special fondness for the mailman. At that time, we weren’t sure how ANYTHING could EVER get down a road blocked on both sides with trees. STILL the US Mail came, exceeding expectations of the old credo, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

Still, we must admit it: Holiday time is overwhelming. We struggle to send traditional cards. We just about gave up this year.

Then, an amazing local artist made us realize we were letting something really valuable go. We are committed to starting earlier next year.

Now, even more, we are remembering the deep joy of the U. S. Postal service — How special is it that we can send our handwritten love just by putting a stickered envelope in the box outside our door?

Ordering online, we remember the beauty and meaning of stamps. We’re thinking of adding to old collections!

as our children send cards of love and little treats

dear friends mail us beautiful, handmade masks

care packages come from a Mom

and beautiful, locally crafted cards fly home.

In Praise of Local Crafters and their Kind Consideration

Mask crafted by Firefly Michele Miroff

While it is totally not cool that ANYONE has. had to scrounge for PPE – especially essential workers, ESPECIALLY healthcare folks! – We have decided to be grateful that out of that challenge has come a beautiful, thoughtful, heartfelt art form. 

We can hardly get close enough to look each other in the eye and yet now so many crafty people have found a way to lovingly hug our faces.

And…because, on balance, masks themselves really are more courtesy than personal protection, we immediately get to pay the care forward. 

And…it’s not a bad business. They’re fairly simple to make and yet imagination is the limit. People need lots of them….

So…talk about socially conscious fashion that is form and function!

Trudy has been busily making them for family and neighbors. In our Firefly Lights, you can read about Kirk Larsen and his #maskforce #teachersgettingitdone

Did you see this article about the Luchador in Mexico?

How about this much more local bit in The Observer about The Engeman Theater?

CBSN New York shows a 95-year old Floral Park seamstress who’s part of a volunteer corp founded in Huntington “Stitched Together Long Island” that has made more than 20,000 masks for essential workers.

The Mask Mavens of Huntington is a small team of volunteers that are sewing and giving away homemade masks for free to any and all who need them.

This article in the LIBN by Bernadette Starzee is about three entrepreneurial firms who created 5,000 masks a day to sell at cost to hospitals and first responders.

This News12 Article covers a Bellmore Fashion Designer who, with her remotely-working staff, churned out 1,000 masks in one week to donate to medical personnel.

Here’s a North Fork Patch article “Iconic Sail Makers, Brewery Make Face Masks for Hospital Heroes”

To make them yourself, and get good advice on using them, here’s a good article in Popular Mechanics.

Firefly Lights!

The Firefly Artists Logo

First, Long Island’s Best: Share these amazing High School artists far and wide, would you? These kids are amazing. We at The Firefly Artists in Northport were honored to be among those giving a few of them scholarships. These kids should have gallery receptions and award ceremonies. At the very least, we can plaster them all over the internet. Follow the Heckscher Museum to see the awards ceremony and find more great stuff to share.

Meanwhile, as a Managing Partner of the Firefly, Katie has crafted a “Firefly Lights“ newsletter to send our love and care, assist our dear fellow Fireflies in marketing their wares, and share some of the ways our amazing artists have been lighting up our lives lately….Please enjoy and let us know what you think!

If you wish to receive these, please let us know – folks on our regular newsletter list are NOT automatically receiving them!

We look forward to crafting another soon — can’t fit all our amazing artists into just one!!! Do check out our page: The Firefly Artists and our brand new group, The Firefly Artists Gallery & Community Square, where our artists can speak for themselves and post art for sale!

It’s not the same as getting to gather in our beautiful gallery, but it’s something we hope continues to grow!

In Gratitude for the Good News Makers

Thank you, John Krasinski and all involved in “Some Good News”!

We are even more grateful that, while there are very special aspects unique to SGN’s own scale (say…that Hamilton thing a few weeks back, or more recently those amazing commencement conversations), these bits shared from across the country are but a small sampling of what’s happening right here, right now in our own backyards.

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Art is Life. Life is Art.

The Firefly Artists Logo

Now is a time for story telling, picture painting, music making and dance. We firmly believe these things are fundamental to the human spirit and will choose to be grateful that for now, perhaps, we’ll have some more time to practice our crafts.

We at the Firefly Artists will likely be closing our physical doors for a while, but we will also be ramping up creative endeavors to support art and our artists.

One Firefly, Helen-Murdock Prep has been crafting sweet, funny, honest videos that we are sharing now.

Like the Firefly Artists on Facebook for that and so much more.

Plus:

12 Famous Museums offering Virtual Tours

Mo Willems is hosting a Weekly Live Stream Doodle

We’ll post more at The Firefly and on our own Synchronicity Facebook Page as we find it!!!

Second — An Irish Blessing

A Long Island Four-Leaf Clover. Photo by Katheryn Laible

While the Irish shutting down their pubs on the Eve of St. Paddy’s day is a sure sign that this stuff is serious, locally we’ve seen more than a few Suffolk folks find a silver lining in that they can now get cocktails to go.

For our part, we are choosing to celebrate that The Dropkick Murphys have decided, since they can’t play to a crowd in Boston tonight, they’re going to live stream it the world instead, 7PM EST.

It’s a lovely addition to these amazing videos of balcony performances in Italy.

Play on…

The Philosophy That Guides Us

We’ve been reflecting quite a bit as we endeavor to develop this communications platform centered on our Synchronicity Network Newsletter. Our mission, as currently understood, is this:

“The mission of Synchronicity Planning & Communications is to serve and celebrate folks who care for art, science and the common good, improving the quantity and quality of community engagement on Long Island via a networking and communications platform centered on the Synchronicity Network and its Flagship Newsletter.”

Digging deeper, we ask ourselves WHY? For her part, Katie has offered the following:

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