Villages

At more than two dozen popular water recreation spots, environmental groups have teamed up on weekly testing for a bacteria that points to whether it’s wise to swim, paddleboard, or otherwise spend time in the water.

“I’m a Jew. It’s really that simple,” said one woman, when asked why she had joined in a Stand With Israel rally that drew hundreds, including Representative Nick LaLota, to East Hampton over on Sunday.

Andrew Gray and R. Layne Baker were married on the beach at the Bridgehampton Tennis and Surf Club on June 22.

The Montauk Library has appealed to the community for help in winning a new bench — one that would also be a win for the environment.

Uncommon.org, a nonprofit that takes coding and computer science education to children and young adults in Zimbabwe, will hold a fund-raiser in East Hampton on July 20. Founded by Peter Kazickas, formerly of Amagansett, Uncommon.org has grown from a 2017 pilot program providing 20 laptops to young people to a full-fledged nonprofit reaching 5,000 young people.

To those who saw Bay Street Theater’s recent production of “The Subject Was Roses,” John Slattery, Talia Balsam, and Harry Slattery are celebrities. But to Holly Wheaton, director of the Springs Food Pantry, they’re just “everyday folks who saw a need and wanted to help” when Covid-19 caused people to flock to the pantry for assistance. They are the honorees at the pantry's E.A.T. in the Garden benefit this year.

At the rally for Israel in Herrick Park on Sunday, a source of controversy was not counterprotesters, who never showed up, but the cancellation of a speaker, Judith Kasen-Windsor, a well-known activist for L.G.B.T.Q.+ issues.

Lauralee Jo Kelly and Andrew George Stenerson of Amagansett were married on June 21, the summer solstice, in a private afternoon ceremony at the East Hampton Nature Trail.

After noting sharp spikes in dissolved oxygen levels at a test site on Fort Pond in Montauk last week, Concerned Citizens of Montauk again tested water at the site this week and detected the first toxic blue-green algae bloom of the season in the pond.

A recent headline in The New York Post about Mecox Bay, noting that one of its beaches is “ranked as one of the worst for fecal matter in nation,” caused a stir, but a new nonprofit group with former Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman at the helm is poised to do something about it.

Jimmy Minardi, a veteran lifeguard on East Hampton Village beaches, has announced the launch of the East Hampton Village Surf Rescue Response Team, a new nonprofit organization that will bring in even more helping hands when swimmers are in danger.

Summer is perhaps the worst time of year to bird. You’re birding but you’re not really birding. Leave your binoculars at home. Leave your iPhone and Merlin app in the car. This is not for that. Instead, stroll through the cemetery, grow thoughtful, and let the birds, many of which will live only a few years, be your soundtrack.