I have to admit that the folks who made the various predictions about the 2017 hurricane season were right on target. Most of the widely followed prognosticators who said it was going to be an active and possibly serious season were spot on in their outlook. Weather forecasters get a tough rap when they are wrong, but get little credit when they are correct. Whether it was Hurricane Harvey, Irma, Maria, or Jose, or one of the other named storms, the trials and tribulations of their destructive wrath have been widely and sadly publicized for all to bear witness to this season. And for those directly affected by those storms, it will take a long time to recover from the damage, rebuilding, and emotional scars. The pain and misery do not evaporate overnight.

Those of us here on eastern Long Island are fortunate that we have not experienced a direct hit from a storm thus far. While we are finally past the peak of hurricane season in the Atlantic basin, we still have another two months to keep our guard up. May our good fortunes continue. 

While some of these storms came rather close to our area, and all of us dread the possible destruction they could bring, other aspects of them are eagerly awaited and deeply appreciated. 

By whom? you may ask. Well, talk to anyone with a surfboard in the back of his or her pickup or on top of the car. For those who take pride in waxing their long or short board, the past few weeks have brought a virtual surfing nirvana with near-perfect, long-period swells formed by several turbulent low-pressure systems that spiraled off to the south and east of Long Island. 

“Surf’s up!” as the old beach saying goes, and quite a few are taking full advantage of some very clean, long waves, courtesy of Mother Nature.

“Great, clean swells the past few weeks,” said Matt Martin of Southampton, a surfer. “Most areas out here have had a good set of waves. It’s been great.” Popular spots for those seeking the best waves include longtime favorites like Turtle Cove and Ditch Plain in Montauk, as well as Flying Point to the west in Southampton. However, there are a number of less crowded spots in between that others actively surf and try to keep to themselves.

“There’s been some good surf conditions out here,” agreed Stu Foley, owner of Air and Speed Surf Shop in downtown Montauk. “I’m not necessarily seeing many new people; it’s a lot of the same crew. It’s always harder for the locals to find time to surf, as most have to actually work for a living.” 

Hard-core surfers ply their trade year round, but it’s clear to many that the fall months are the best time of year to enjoy the sport. “No doubt, September and October are my favorite months,” said Martin. “The water is still warm and the conditions are usually good.” 

While surfers have been enthused by the recent wave action, those fishing from the beach — surfcasters — have been a bit dismayed by the lack of activity since the beginning of September. Rough waters have made fishing a challenge the past few weeks, but that is starting to change as an uptick in action was noticed in several areas, mainly toward the west, along the ocean beaches. 

The Town of Southampton finally made a cut to open up Mecox Bay to the ocean on Friday morning, and those casting under the stars at night witnessed some good action, but not every nighttime outing was met with success. And once the sun came up over the horizon, any action was quick to shut down.

Out at Montauk, Paulie’s Tackle Shop held its annual surf striped bass contest this past weekend, but the action was on the slow side. “Fishing was tough,” reported Paul Apostolides, owner of the shop. “I’m hoping things will change for the better soon.” Richie Michaelson of Montauk landed the largest bass of the tourney, weighing in at 24 pounds. However, those fishing from a boat out in the rips off the Lighthouse reported better success with stripers: Fish well into the 40-pound range have been consistently landed. 

“It finally felt like fall this past weekend,” said Harvey Bennett, the seasoned owner of the Tackle Shop in Amagansett. “Bass have showed up on the sand beaches along with alligator-sized bluefish. It’s been fun of late.” On the bay side, Bennett was enthused that porgies and blowfish remain plentiful and that the snapper fishing continues to be action-packed from various docks and bulkheads. “And don’t forget the false albacore, too,” added Bennett, who continues to run his special fall sale on clam rakes. “They are cruising around right up to the harbor entrances.”

Over at Mrs. Sam’s Bait and Tackle in East Hampton, the proprietor, Sebastian Gorgone, was smiling about the weakfish bite outside of Three Mile Harbor and the large porgies deeper inside the harbor entrance. “Fishing has been really good,” he said. “And there is still a good amount of blowfish around, too.” Gorgone was also gearing up for the fall blackfish season, which opens today. Anglers are now allowed to retain four fish over 16 inches per person. 

Light-tackle anglers are having some good luck, too. “Some really big bluefish are roaming around Gardiner’s Bay,” said Capt. Merritt White of Gunkholin Charters. “The false albacore are around in good numbers, but they have been fussy and a bit tough to catch at times.” 

Capt. Paul Dixon, the light-tackle expert of Dixon’s to the Point Charters, out of East Hampton, agrees on the increased fishing action. “Fishing has been good with lots of bass and albies, but the fish are spread out everywhere from Montauk to Orient. The swells and fog put a damper on things, but now the weather is better and fishing has really picked up.”

Farther west, Scott Jeffrey at East End Bait and Tackle in Hampton Bays confirmed that the ocean beaches were holding striped bass up to 38 pounds. “We have weighed in quite a few nice fish,” he said. “Most of the fish fell for plugs or rubber baits in the dark. Some schoolies are around too as the sun rises.”

We welcome your fishing tips, observations, and photographs at [email protected]. You can find the “On the Water” column on Twitter at @ehstarfishing.

An 82-year-old man was found seriously injured in the road on Farm Lane in East Hampton Sunday afternoon, the victim of an apparent hit and run, according to East Hampton Town police. Harvey Roth suffered a leg injury, among other things, and was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he is listed in serious condition as of yesterday. 

Mr. Roth, who lives on the dead-end street off Spring Close Highway, had been out for a routine walk, Capt. Chris Anderson said on Monday. A passer-by found him bleeding on the pavement, about a quarter-mile or so from his house and called 911 at about 4:30 p.m. 

It was not clear exactly when the accident occurred, but police believe he was found just minutes afterward. “He was not there for a prolonged amount of time,” Captain Anderson said.

The detective division is investigating and are treating it as a hit and run, the captain said. No arrests had been made as of press time. Captain Anderson asked that the driver who hit Mr. Roth “contact the authorities,” and that anyone with information about the incident call detectives at 631-537-7575. All calls will be kept confidential.

Trudy Nordmeier, who lives on the cul-de-sac next door to Mr. Roth and his wife, Roberta, said she found out about the accident from a friend who had just left her house after lunch. She thought Mr. Roth had fallen and went to help, but saw a flurry of police activity. Mr. Roth was being treated by emergency medical personnel on the side of the road, close to Spring Close Highway. She quickly gleaned he had been struck by a vehicle due to the severity of his injuries. 

“It’s scary,” Ms. Nordmeier said by phone later. She wondered if the angle of the sun at that time of day may have played a role in the accident. “The sun glare when I drove around the corner, the sun glare was very strong. The area where Harvey was hit, there were shadows from dense foliage in the yard right there. I could actually see how an accident could happen,” she said. The following day, she walked her dog down to the accident scene at around the same time and noted the sun glare, again. “It’s scary. By the grace of God go I.” 

The Roth family could not be reached.

Instead of going home after a long workday, over 100 Latino students attend a two-hour English as a second language program in Wainscott on Thursdays. However, unlike typical students, they range from 20 to 40 years old, and are thrilled to be there. 

Cheerful as they wait in line to be checked in to Aprendiendo Inglés Ahora E.S.L. classes, men and women with pencils and notebooks in hand, kiss hello before being directed to their level-appropriate classrooms. Five levels of English are taught by 14 teachers. 

Louise Bergerson, an Amagansett resident who retired in 2014 from a 35-year career as a middle and high school science teacher, department head, and eventually the academic dean at a private school in Manhattan, a director of the program, had committed herself to teaching English on the East End. She teaches level 1 (the second level after basic). 

 The idea had been long in the making. Adriana Leon, an East Hampton resident who moved here from Ecuador in 1997 and has worked for Ms. Bergerson for nearly 15 years, explained that throughout their time together they often discussed the need to teach English to Latinos in the community. 

“It’s so important because if we live in this country, and we work in this country, and we have kids going to school and everything, we should be able to communicate,” Ms. Leon said. “If we decide to live here, we have to learn the language.”

Although Ms. Leon, who also is a director of the program, learned English by working with English-speaking clients and taking classes at Suffolk County Community College, she understood that many people have work and families to care for and are unable to travel to Riverhead, where a class is held a few times a week. In fact, it was a struggle for her.

“I would have liked to keep going to school to keep learning,” Ms. Leon said, “but with my kids and everything, it was difficult for me to keep going. That’s why I saw this as a good program.” 

Together, Ms. Leon and Ms. Bergerson began initial planning and eventually approached Ms. Leon’s pastor, Oswaldo Palomo, to see if they could hold classes in the Wainscott building that houses the Living Water Christian Gospel Church and the Vida Abundante Christian Church. The response was positive.

In July 2014, textbooks were ordered and enrollment for Thursday night classes began, with 57 students the first year, a daunting number for Ms. Bergerson, who said she had never taught English before. As a result, she recruited friends with English-teaching backgrounds to volunteer. 

Enrollment for the program is now at capacity, and some students even travel from as far west as Hampton Bays. Tuition for the year-round program (September through August) is $120, a fee that is used for textbooks, pens, white boards, printer ink, and other necessary items.  

“It feels good knowing that you’re doing something that people need and are so genuinely appreciative of,” Ms. Bergerson said. “It warms your heart.” 

Another volunteer, Ben Bijur, 17, has a unique take. Being significantly younger than most of the Latino students and the only high school volunteer, he switches gears after a day at the Ross School, where he is a senior. At Aprendiendo Inglés Ahora he is a homework helper and co-teaches some classes. 

“It’s really cool how much of an influence I can have and how English is more of a barrier than age,” Ben said. “They’re just trying to learn the language that surrounds them, and it’s amazing that I can really impact their learning by just giving a few hours of my time every week.” Ben’s sentiments about the program are pervasive among fellow volunteers and directors.

“The miracle is not to have the students come to class, the miracle for me is to have all the volunteers coming to teach us the language,” Mr. Oswaldo said. “All of the Americans — teachers, professional people that are retired — who are willing to spend their time on us is just a miracle. And we really appreciate that.”

An 18-year-old in the Bronx was accused last week of stabbing one of his classmates to death and seriously injuring another. According to fellow students, the attacker snapped after being relentlessly bullied for his “flamboyant” personality.

The news resonated, especially as October is National Bullying Prevention and Awareness month. The nonprofit organization Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights instituted this monthlong awareness program in 2006 to help curb an insidious practice that can be traced back hundreds of years. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “bully” first appeared around 1530, as a term of endearment applied to either sex; later becoming a familiar form of male address, implying friendly admiration. By the 1700s, however, the meaning deteriorated; the O.E.D. now defines a bully as “a tyrannical coward who makes himself a terror to the weak.”

In the United States, efforts at the local, regional, and federal (stopbullying.gov) levels are aimed at stopping bullying and its impacts. East Hampton and neighboring schools have also recognized the need to heighten awareness, through classes and school-wide programs. Since 2009, East Hampton High School has had four suicides, three of them said to have been the result of bullying.

James Stewart is the high school’s health teacher; all grades eventually come through his class. Mr. Stewart has been at the school since 1978, when bullying was known, simplistically, as “teasing,” he said. Later, “hazing” was introduced, when upperclassmen would initiate freshmen into the mysteries of high school; it was largely dismissed as a rite of passage. Over the last decade, however, the district has taken strides to break the cycle and educate students about the risks in accepting such behavior as just part of life. Today, Mr. Stewart said, verbal and physical bullying has been greatly reduced at the school, although cyberbullying is on the rise — a type of bullying he considers more dangerous as it is often invisible to others.

Ultimately, he said, pinpointing a child’s need to harm another, whether through physical, verbal, or cyber abuse, is the focus of his work in the classroom, and mental health is therefore at the forefront of his teaching.

One program he uses is Sources of Strength, a 15-year-old project now in more than 250 schools and community centers in 20 states. Researchers and advocates laud it; it is one of the few prevention programs described by the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices as “a powerful program designed to harness the power of peer social networks to change unhealthy norms and culture, ultimately preventing suicide, bullying, and substance abuse.”

In addition, Mr. Stewart has implemented Compassion Without Borders into the health curriculum. That program, launched by the Suffolk County High School Principals Association, aims to galvanize the collective energies of high school students from 25 Long Island schools who have been identified as “natural leaders.” Each year, Mr. Stewart selects 10 high schoolers known to be empathetic or compassionate, as well as one or two who he feels could benefit from being around them. The Leadership Council, as the team is called, attends an annual conference each spring, to share ideas and learn about new ways to make a positive difference in their classmates’ lives. 

This year’s theme, Mr. Stewart said, is Pay It Forward, which translates to passing on an act of kindness to others.

At the middle school, Charles Soriano, the principal, believes that every month should be bullying awareness month. In fact, the overarching theme for the school is respect@ehms, which the principal defined as the foundation for “providing a caring environment where all students are valued and their academic, social, and emotional growth is nurtured.” Ultimately, however, Dr. Soriano stresses that it is important that teachers not just focus on bad behavior but teach children how to be positive and supportive.

Differences and arguments between children can often be a point of vulnerability. At the Ross School in East Hampton, a day school for East End families and a boarding school for students representing 17 nationalities, Hailey London, who teaches seventh-through-10th-grade health studies, works hard to ensure that bullying stays off the campus. Her focus is to instill Ross’s core values, particularly in the lower grades — tenets such as courage, compassion, respect, cooperation, integrity, and mindfulness, all integrated into the curriculum. Beyond tolerance, she said, she teaches students to celebrate diversity, expressing gratitude for all cultures, and a respect for world history.

“Ross has come to be equated with more of a ‘safe haven’ for students who might be on the fringes socially in a larger school‚“ said Ms. London. “Here, they are respected for traditional traits, such as their athleticism, but also for their talents, academics, and sometimes even quirkiness.” However, she added quickly, “We are not immune to [bullying] and work very hard to keep the school climate as one of safety and respect. We take a multifaceted approach to the prevention, and, if need be, identification, of bullying.”

At the end of the period in Mr. Stewart’s class at East Hampton High School, the bell sounds and students get ready to leave. Instead of rushing out of the door, they fall into single file and touch a piece of paper Mr. Stewart has taped to a file cabinet near the door. It says, “I am going to make you proud of me. Note to self.”

The former Child Development Center of the Hamptons in East Hampton could become the newest location for the Gersh Academy, a private special education school for children on the autism spectrum.

Kevin Gersh, the founder of the school, which has five locations nationwide, including two on Long Island, spoke about his plans on Tuesday to the East Hampton Town Board. Mr. Gersh is also the administrator in charge of additional Gersh programs for young people with autism, such as a summer program, social club, therapy program, and residential living facility for those age 18 and up. 

“If you allow me to be in your community, I will develop something you’ve never seen,” he said, “a community center of children with special needs, and families.” He said he would begin by opening a summer camp for up to 150 children with special needs next summer at the former C.D.C.H. location on Stephen Hand’s Path, with the school doors to open in September 2018. The building can accommodate 60 students for classes during the school year, Mr. Gersh said. 

According to Steve Latham, an attorney for Mr. Gersh, a deal to purchase the school building from the child development center is nearing completion. East Hampton Town owns the underlying land, and permission from the town board is needed to assign the lease to Gersh Academy. 

For a short time several years ago Gersh Academy took over the program at the Child Development Center of the Hamptons, which was facing a financial shortfall. But, said Mr. Gersh, ultimately he declined to take on the school’s “baggage.”

The school would employ an executive director and a host of professional staff members such as a social worker, psychologist, speech pathologist, occupational therapist, and so on, in addition to special education teachers and aides, said Mr. Gersh. 

Its services will be tailored to what is needed in the East Hampton area, he said, but he envisions educating children in kindergarten through 12th grade. 

The Gersh classes at those levels would be solely for special education students, unlike the Child Development Center of the Hamptons classes, which were mixed groups that comprised children who required special education services alongside those who did not.

However, Mr. Gersh said he had just received a state license to offer prekindergarten classes, which would be integrated, with equal numbers of regular education and special-needs students. He has met with special education administrators in local schools, he said, who have told him there is a need for services at the pre-K level.

Should he receive the approvals needed to establish a school in East Hampton, he said he would reach out to school district officials to ask them “what do you need . . . how can we help?” in order to determine the scope of services offered.

“I want to do what’s not been done,” he said. He gave the example of a mother he met whose child has to travel several hours on a bus from the East End to attend an appropriate educational program. 

The Gersh school would provide “custom education” based on special education students’ individualized education plans prepared by their home school districts, at least initially, said Mr. Gersh, and include experiential learning through outdoor activities such as gardening. He said he envisions closing off a roadway behind the school building to create a simulated setting where children may practice safely crossing streets and navigating a neighborhood.

The French newspaper La Presse de La Manche in Normandy recently ran this headline: “Une bouteille a la mer retrouvée a Glatigny: le message envoyé des Etats-Unis date de 2008!”

Even if one does not speak French, the exclamation point at the end expresses the wonder of the story: A bottle was found along a beach in the Normandy region in northwestern France containing a message that had been sent from the United States in 2008. 

A 13-year-old girl, enjoying a seafront stroll with her father at the end of August, spotted the bottle. According to the newspaper report, the neck of the bottle was covered in barnacles but the girl could see that there was a scroll of paper inside.  

Carefully extracting the note, the family found a still-intact and legible message, typed in English by a 10-year-old named Eric, who identified himself as a fifth grader at the Montauk School and the date as Dec. 23, 2008. Casting the bottle to sea was part of a science lesson on ocean currents, Eric wrote. The note included the email address of his teacher, Sue Nicoletti, should the bottle ever be found.

Unfortunately, young Eric had added an extra letter to his teacher’s email address and the French family’s attempts to contact her were unsuccessful. They first took the bottle to the tourism office in the seaside town of Portbail, where they were vacationing and then contacted the local newspaper. Chrismael Marchand, a reporter, eventually tracked down the Montauk teacher.

Ms. Nicoletti retired in 2012 after 28 years at the Montauk School and currently works with the Wellness Foundation, teaching at the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center in East Hampton and other schools about making healthy choices with food. Shortly after the school year began in September, Ms. Nicoletti said she was surprised and thrilled to receive an email from the French newspaper, with the published story. Although it was in French, she said she was able to piece together the facts, especially that the bottle had journeyed approximately 3,350 miles.

During a phone call, Ms. Nicoletti recalled the day in 2008 when her fifth graders wrote notes and sealed each bottle with wax. “There were about 20 students in class,” she said, “and we gave all the bottles to the captain of Nolan’s Sea Capture, a fishing boat in Montauk. He took them about 100 or 120 miles out to sea and dropped them into the Gulf Stream.” A few years ago, said Ms. Nicoletti, another of her students from the same class had her bottle discovered in Ireland, though there appears to be no news coverage about it. In addition, over 15 years ago, she remembered that another message in a bottle was discovered in France, also sent by a Montauk student. “It’s all about the Gulf Stream,” said the teacher. “If we cast them off the beach, they simply float right back.”

Eric Perez, an East Hampton High School graduate in 2016, was the author of the 2008 note found in Normandy. Today, he is a sophomore at the State University at Oswego, studying wellness management and athletic coaching, and competes on the university’s track team. On the phone, Eric said he had completely forgotten about the science experiment but the details of writing the letter and sealing the bottle all came back after he heard that it had been found in France. He remembers how hopeful he was that day that someone, somewhere would find his message.

Seventy residents of the South Fork, some of them elected officials and others hoping to be, sailed from Montauk to the Block Island Wind Farm Monday for an up-close look at the nation’s first offshore wind-energy installation. On Block Island, officials of Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company that built the five-turbine wind farm and plans to construct the larger South Fork Wind Farm in federal waters approximately 36 miles from Montauk, described and answered questions about both of the projects. 

Renewable Energy Long Island, a nonprofit advocacy organization, hosted the excursion in collaboration with Deepwater Wind. 

Three miles from the island, in waters 75 to 90 feet deep, each turbine stands some 600 feet high when the blade is vertical. On Monday, the blades, 240 feet long, spun slowly and silently on three of the turbines; the others, according to Deepwater officials, were inactive while maintenance was being performed. Each foundation, rising 70 feet out of the water, weighs more than 1,500 tons. 

The 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm began operation in December. It produces, according to Clint Plummer, Deepwater Wind’s vice president of development, about 10 times the island’s electrical needs in a given year. “This project brings power ashore, plugs in and delivers directly to the grid here in Block Island, and includes a separate line going from Block Island back to the mainland,” he said, detailing the “export” cable that transmits electricity from the wind farm to a substation on the island and a separate, “sea-to-shore” cable, owned by National Grid, that delivers electricity from there to the mainland. If the wind farm produces less than the island’s needs, the bi-directional sea-to-shore cable can draw power from the mainland, he said. 

The installation’s five turbines effectively replaced five diesel generators upon which the island had relied for electricity, said Bryan Wilson, the Block Island Wind Farm’s manager. Those generators burned around one million gallons of fuel per year, he said. Residents, said Mr. Wilson, who has lived on the island year round since 1985, were subject to “severe fluctuations in our cost of electricity.” That was especially problematic, he said, because, like the SouthFork, “we’re a seasonal community with a lot of folks that make their money on tourism.” 

The sea-to-shore cable, he said, “offers us the stability of being tied into the mainland grid that we didn’t have before. As people are fond of saying now, our clocks don’t run slow or too fast. Before, we would have to replace appliances every three to four years because the voltage was so ‘dirty’ out here.”

The group stood in the parking lot of Fred Benson Town Beach, above the buried concrete vaults where the cables, which are buried four to six feet below the sea bottom and underground to the substation, make landfall. Situating that junction at what is a very crowded location in the summer “was a concern for locals,” but “everything is armored,” Mr. Wilson said, detailing the poured-concrete blocks that house the infrastructure. Construction occurred in the winter months. The town was “adequately compensated” for the use of this area. “People were happy to see it,” he said, “because they knew it was leading ultimately to this project,” the wind farm. 

The Rhode Island Coastal Resource Management Council required Deepwater Wind to conduct postinstallation surveys, Mr. Wilson said, including of the electromagnetic field emanating from the transmission cables, which fishermen on the South Fork fear could disrupt marine habitat or migration patterns. When the cables are buried to their target depth of four to six feet, the electromagnetic field is minimal, he said, dropping off significantly beyond three feet from the cable. Heat emanating from the cable also dissipates beyond a level of concern, Mr. Wilson said. 

Anecdotal evidence indicates no harm to the island’s lobster fishery during or after construction, Mr. Wilson said, though fishermen were displaced, and compensated, during construction. 

The South Fork Wind Farm, for which Deepwater Wind plans to submit permit applications early next year, remains controversial. Commercial fishermen are generally opposed to it, particularly the initial plan to run the transmission cable through Napeague and Gardiner’s Bay. (Deepwater officials have said that they are exploring a southern, oceanside route in response to those concerns.) Republican candidates for East Hampton Town Board and the town trustees have also taken a position against the project, although Jim Grimes, a Republican trustee seeking re-election, offered qualified support, along with lingering concerns, on Monday.  

“This is what we’ve been doing for years — we’ve engaged with the fishing community,” Mr. Wilson said to Julie Evans, also running for trustee on the Republican ticket, as the gathering stood at the Southeast Light, the island’s iconic lighthouse, the Mohegan Bluffs of the south shore offering a clear view of the wind farm’s five turbines. “It is understandable that there’s opposition to the introduction of this new technology into traditionally open-water areas,” he said. “Part of the discussion is to make sure that the impacts are mitigated as much as possible, if there are indeed impacts.” 

Wind turbines can be positioned so that there is no impact on commercial or recreational fishing, Mr. Wilson said. Exactly how to accomplish that was a likely topic at last night’s meeting of the trustees’ harbor management committee, to which fishermen were invited. 

Over dinner two weeks ago, 8-year-old Beatrice Flight of Montauk discussed wanting to help residents in storm-battered islands such as Puerto Rico and Barbuda. Her 11-year-old sister, Scarlett, however, suggested doing something for Hurricane Harvey victims in Houston. 

As it happened, the Montauk School principal, Jack Perna, had already contacted the Houston Independent School District and offered help wherever needed. The Houston district matched the Montauk school with the Fonwood Early Childhood Center in downtown Houston, one of some 200 schools in the area to be impacted by the hurricane. Mr. Perma called the center’s principal, Kimberly Agnew, and asked for a list of necessities for her 3 and 4-year-old students. Ms. Agnew told Mr. Perna that underwear, socks, clothes, and, of course, toys, were top priority.

Coincidentally, Beatrice and a fellow third grader, Carli Stuckhart, knocked on the principal’s door around the same time and announced that they had a plan to help Hurricane Harvey victims. 

“We could do a bake sale,” Beatrice said, “and make a lot of money to send to someone so that they could buy whatever they needed.”

Sure, said Mr. Perna, and told the duo that as long as they organized the event and did all the work, the idea had the green light. While the principal enlisted Montauk’s honor roll students to collect donations of the clothing items needed, Beatrice and Carli set the date for the after-school bake sale — Sept. 20 and last Thursday — which gave them only three days to pull it all together.

“These two girls were amazing,” said Mr. Perna. “They organized everything from scheduling, to making the posters, to the actual baking, and even cleaning up.”

Beatrice’s mother, Georgia Biondo, helped spread the word among parents, asking for donations of baked goods. “Many parents across the grades did the baking,” she said. “Scarlett, Bea, and I made cake pops, brownies, and Rice Krispie treats. And there were lots of cookies, of course.” 

The two-day bake sale landed the young fund-raisers $620, which will be sent to the school next week along with a care package of requested clothing items, and toys donated by the Montauk Fire Department.

Mr. Perna called the two third graders, “very impressive young wo­men,” then added, “I know my students. Someone is probably already working on doing something for Florida and the Caribbean islands.”

Environmental protection and maintaining a familiar quality of life will be the subjects Saturday at the East Hampton Library, when Debra Brodie Foster speaks about her new book, "A Story That Must Be Told: Saving East Hampton's Soul, 1978-2017," at 1 p.m.

Ms. Foster, is a former member of the East Hampton Town Board and Planning Board.

The book is both a history of government and civic action and a chronicle filled with personal anecdotes. Key, in Ms. Foster's telling, was the period in the early 1980s when what she called a development avalanche descended on the town's farmland, woods, and dunes, especially on Napeague and Montauk. The town was not ready for it, with a land use plan dating to the 1960s that would have allowed as many as 1,000 motels or condominiums along the ocean east of Amagansett.

She cites the work of early advocates for restraint, including Richard Whalen, then a young lawyer who called the town's bluff on the looming destruction of a Native American burial ground, and the late Carol Morrison, who was among Montauk's strongest defenders.

Battles chronicled in Mr. Foster's book include the successful defeat of a plan for condos at Duck Creek on Three Mile Harbor and the period in 1982 when a Republican majority on the East Hampton Town Board disbanded the Planning Department, which led to massive outcry and to a Democratic Party triumph in the next town election, when Judith Hope was voted in as supervisor.

Ms. Foster ends her book with a plea for residents to continue to hold the line on development, not build in flood zones, and demand officials come up with a 100-year plan for the future of the town.

Police are asking for the public's help regarding the theft of two all-terrain vehicles in Sag Harbor this summer, and are offering a cash reward for information leading to an arrest.

Two lime green children's A.T.V.s were stolen from a property on Denise Street, outside the village, in the early part of August. The A.T.V.s were hidden in a wooded area nearby and taken by three men in a new-style four-door, bright blue Ford F-150 pickup truck, according to police. 

The A.T.V.s are described as a 2017 lime green Kawasaki quad VIN# RGSWE07A2HBC10134 and a 2015 gime green Kawasaki quad VIN# RGSWE07A1FB100542.

The case is being handled by Southampton Town police detectives. Police did not provide a value for the vehicles, but new youth A.T.V.s retail for between $2,000 and $3,000.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.