Polar plunges at Main Beach in East Hampton and Beach Lane in Wainscott on New Year’s Day accomplish many things: bracing and exhilarating starts to the year, the company of many hundreds of friends and fellow townspeople, and a chance to secure bragging rights that extend well into 2026. But most important, each serves as a critical fund-raiser for food pantries.

Soon after moving to Water Mill with her family in 2015, Marit Molin became aware of a largely unacknowledged population underpinning the complicated Hamptons economy. That led her to create Hamptons Community Outreach, which is dedicated to meeting basic critical needs to help break cycles of poverty.

The East Hampton Fire Department has had “astronomical” success in recruitment in 2025, the Fire and Emergency Medical Services administrator told the East Hampton Village Board last week, with 19 new recruits representing a near-quadrupling of what is seen in a typical year.