FREE
Volume 6 • Issue 47 SaratogaPublishing.com
by Yael Goldman Saratoga TODAY WILTON – For one local family, being able to spend the holidays together is reason enough to be thankful. Becky Fish, a Wilton mother of four, is counting her blessings this Thanksgiving. She’s looking forward to spending the holiday with
her husband Mike and their children Hailey (10), Dylan (7), Tyler (5) and little Michael, who just turned 1 November 9. Her husband, a volunteer firefighter and national guardsman, will deploy to Kuwait sometime between the end of December and the beginning of January 2012. He’ll be gone for at least a year. That’s a long time to be away, but it could have been worse. Mike was supposed to leave December 2 for a mission in Afghanistan, and had already come to terms with the fact that he was spending the holidays away from home. Thankfully that has changed. The Fishes learned two weeks ago that Mike is, instead, headed to Kuwait, and won’t depart until after Christmas.
photo by MarkBolles.com • Saratoga Today See Family page 14 The Fish family
by Christina James Saratoga TODAY
BALLSTON SPA- For the 18th year, friends, family, neighbors, strangers and newcomers will gather together at the local firehouse and give thanks the best way Americans know how- over a delicious turkey dinner. The annual Ballston Spa community dinner will take place Thursday, November 24, from noon-4 p.m. at the Union Fire Co. No. 2 firehouse on Route 50. It is
free for ANYONE to attend. This invitation comes as a relief to many, as the steady evolution of Thanksgiving from just a meal to a full-blown ordeal has made the idea of trading in turkey for Chinese takeout sound dangerously appealing. Don’t pick up the chopsticks just yet. Whether it is money, time, distance or a particularly sensitive smoke detector that is persuading
See A Firehouse page 8
On the Brink: A View From Inside by MichelleReadDeGarmo Saratoga TODAY SARATOGA COUNTY - I have had the privilege of living and working in Saratoga County for most of my adult life, and have always been struck by how despite all that goes on in the world around us, the people in our community do
their best to take care of each other. We lend a hand without being asked, and seem to carry an innate sense of supporting those less fortunate for the greater good of our entire community. As the holidays draw near, many in our community are worried about giving their children the warm, happy holiday all children
In si Is de T su h e is
Home for the Dinner for Holidays Four Hundred
• Festival of Trees • Victorian Streetwalk • Holiday Songbook
Inside TODAY Obituaries pg 5 Fort Hardy Park pg 7 Business pgs 10-11 Man on the Street pg 17
See Community page 13
10,000 copies distributed weekly • Call To Advertise • (518) 581-2480