By most measures, Suffolk County had its worst month of the pandemic so far: New cases per day were above 1,000 on 27 days, and hit a new high of just over 2,000 on Dec. 30. The total cumulative Covid-19 cases increased by 50 percent in the five East End towns during December.

High school students interested in veterinary medicine have the opportunity to attend a Zoom career exploration program hosted by Cornell Cooperative Extension Suffolk County Farm and Education Center.

Fifteen lucky puppies were flown from Camden, S.C., to East Hampton on Dec. 18 in a collaboration between the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons and a local pilot, Charles Canavan.

As the year comes to a close and a new one begins we celebrate people who went above and beyond to make their communities a better place in 2020's darkest of days. These are but a few of the many who inspired us this year through their strength, kindness, resilience, and bravery. 

Representatives from Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy will take part in a virtual meeting to address questions and concerns about the turbine installation's onshore and near-shore footprint.

The curtain that rang down with a thud on high school sports last March may soon be raised, at least insofar as the low-to-moderate-risk sports of boys and girls winter track, boys swimming, and bowling are concerned.

Local food pantries usually see the greatest need in the winter months, when those with seasonal jobs struggle to make ends meet, but because of the pandemic and job losses caused by the economic shutdown, they have been helping feed a record number of people all year. 

From a winter surge in house rentals to a spring shutdown of in-person showings and a subsequent boom in sales that continued through Christmas week, the pandemic led to an unprecedented year in the East End real estate business. 

By year's end, East Hampton Town's Human Services Department was on track to have provided around 57,300 meals, more than in the prior three years combined. It also makes thousands of wellness calls, coordinates with the Family Service League to provide free mental health counseling, provides virtual activities, and offers a support group via teleconference for those caring for a loved one, all in the service of keeping the town's senior citizens safe, nourished, and healthy. 

For many people, 2020 has been challenging, but as the chief of the East Hampton Ambulance Association, Lisa Charde has led a team of volunteers and professional paramedics in harrowing conditions. 

Eric Firestone, whose eponymous gallery opened on Newtown Lane in East Hampton 10 years ago, has always followed his own path. While most gallery owners learn their trade by working for other dealers, Mr. Firestone opened his first gallery, in Tucson, Ariz., in 1994, when he was 21. Just last month he launched a ground-floor space on Great Jones Street in NoHo.

The Watermill Center's annual series Viewpoints: Nights @ the Roundtable, which features conversations with artists working across a range of disciplines, will take place online via Zoom on four consecutive Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m., starting on Jan. 6 with the Daxophone Consort.

Joe Brainard's collages are on view downtown in East Hampton, while a pop-up show lands at Union Steak and Sushi in Southampton.

Almond in Bridgehampton has a four-course prix fixe dinner and champagne toast for New Year's, and a dinner at the 1770 House in East Hampton Village comes with two appetizers and a glass of Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve.

In the spring, when Stony Brook Southampton Hospital began to fill up with patients who were "all so sick at the same time with the same thing, that's when it really got hard . . . and everything we were doing felt like it wasn't helping," recalled Samantha Jiudice, an intensive care unit nurse there. "Now, when the patients come . . . we have a checklist. It's not easier, it just comes more comfortably because we've experienced it already."

Share the Harvest Farm in East Hampton is among the East End farms that have donated high-quality produce to food pantries and have raised awareness about food insecurity on the East End. In 2020, the farm expanded its outreach to include additional food pantries, for a total of 11 sites over the main growing season.

When the pandemic and the call to quarantine began in March, Carolyn Snyder and her family, the owners of Round Swamp Farm in East Hampton, sprang into action to provide homebound residents with homemade soups and groceries, including chickens, eggs, milk, and pantry staples.

When Covid-19 made safely practicing face-to-face medicine difficult, the Family Service League was able to pivot to telemedicine almost immediately — and its mission of caring for people's mental health was suddenly more important than ever, as the pandemic began to take a toll on the emotional well-being of many.

In a year marked as much by social upheaval and a nationwide reckoning over race as it was by unprecedented public health challenges, Willie Jenkins stands out not only for demanding change but for creating it.

A red Specialized Fuse bicycle was last seen on Nov. 28 leaning against a fuel pump at the town marina on Three Mile Harbor. Brett Nicholson said he had special-ordered it from Khanh Sports for $2,700.