Month: December 2025

By David Jones

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    WILDWOOD, Florida (WESH) — Staff at the Wildwood Soup Kitchen are celebrating a Christmas miracle of their own: a $750,000 donation by an anonymous local foundation that has helped the organization eclipse its goal of $1.5 million to purchase a new building.

The soup kitchen has been facing eviction since it received a letter in mid-October from its landlord, the First Presbyterian Church of Wildwood, informing leaders that they had two choices: pay more rent and spend less time in the fellowship hall kitchen, or be evicted come December 31.

Since then, the organization has been aggressively fundraising and had met around half of its goal when the large donation came in.

“Words really can’t describe it,” said Jeff Hetrick, manager of the Wildwood Soup Kitchen. “When you go from being a little over halfway there to eclipsing the need, it’s really unbelievable joy and exuberance.”

Barbara McManus, president of the Board of Directors, said the foundation that donated the money wishes to remain anonymous.

“I just can’t get over it, it just blows my mind that somebody would do that and be able to do that generosity and not expect anything in return,” she said.

But the Wildwood Soup Kitchen’s fundraising campaign hasn’t ended.

The organization will close on the building, located on Main Street/U.S. 301 in Wildwood, on February 1. Currently, the building houses hot dog restaurant Coney Island Drive Inn.

McManus said, starting February, they will be able to start renovations with a tentative move-in date in April or May.

“We know that we want to upgrade a few of the equipment already there, we’ll remove some stuff that’s there, add some of our own stuff,” she said.

The goal now is to raise an additional $600,000 to help in that mission, which she said they’ve already raised around $150,000.

But, as for what happens to the soup kitchen in the meantime, McManus said that’s still up in the air.

Their lease at the church building ends December 31. McManus and Hetrick said they’ve been in negotiations with the church for a six-month extension, but haven’t inked a new deal.

“The problem is we only have two more days before we’re told we have to leave this building,” McManus said.

“I have no idea what the lease will have in it. I’m hoping it will have everything that we want it to be, in that case we can have a six-month extension.”

Still, she said she and the other staff at the soup kitchen are thankful for all the support they’ve received both from the community and across the country.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s one canned good or one dollar or 750,000 dollars,” Hetrick said. “They all make a difference and they all make an impact to feeding the needy here in the Sumter County area, some may think they’re not contributing but every little bit helps.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Madison Monroe Adams

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    PORT CHARLOTTE, Florida (WBBH) — A senior in Port Charlotte is warning others after losing roughly $100,000 worth of jewelry, including sentimental pieces from her late husband and mom, when a moving company employee allegedly stole an armoire during her recent move from New Hampshire.

“It really hurts to look at it now. Empty. And I didn’t know if I’d want it in my bedroom,” Nancy O’Sullivan said, reflecting on the armoire that her late husband had given to her as a Christmas present, and once held her precious jewelry.

Among the stolen items was a bracelet with a heart, a gift from her husband before he died.

“My husband had given me a beautiful bracelet with a heart in it during the time, before he passed, when he was sick,” she said.

O’Sullivan and her daughter had just relocated to Inwood Street in Port Charlotte and hired Patriot Relocation Corp for the move. According to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, Anthony Constantino, an employee of the moving company, stole the armoire containing the jewelry while unloading items from the truck.

“I had noticed that a couple of the guys had disappeared, and I thought maybe they went on break or something like that. And then I was in the house and my daughter came running in and wanted her phone, and I did look out. At that point, I said, what’s going on? And she said, ‘We’ve been robbed, mom.’ And one sheriff’s car pulled up in like 15 seconds,” O’Sullivan said.

Although deputies recovered the armoire, the jewelry was missing.

Investigators reported that a stranger called 911 after witnessing a suspicious person dumping the armoire in a parking lot on Toledo Blade Boulevard. Security cameras captured Constantino removing the jewelry before abandoning the armoire.

“I do thank God for it,” O’Sullivan said, expressing gratitude for the recovery of the armoire. Constantino later turned himself in to the Charlotte County Jail on a warrant for grand theft.

“At this point in life, I’m just now really learning how to be careful and take care of things, and yourself — be careful,” O’Sullivan said.

Despite not recovering her jewelry, she hopes to warn others to prevent similar incidents.

“We had talked about it months before my daughter, and that we will take that with us in the car. And I had gotten a small case that you can put your jewelry in and then take it with you,” she said, advising others to keep valuables like jewelry, passports, and Social Security cards with them during a move rather than in a moving truck.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the jewelry came from her late wife. The jewelry came from her mom.

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By Breana Ross

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    WOODLAWN, Maryland (WBAL) — A Baltimore County knitter’s unique scarf is not only vibrant: Each color signifies the daily weather.

At a home on Cecil Avenue in Woodlawn, Rose Armentrout has an entire room dedicated to her knitting yarn and needles.

“I try to organize it by type,” Armentrout told WBAL-TV 11 News. “This bin is the cotton and this bin is the cashmere.”

The room serves as Armentrout’s safe space, a sign of her dedication to knitting.

“It helps you get through a lot of stuff. My husband and I both have had cancer. He is going through treatment now, so there’s a lot of hours spent sitting at the cancer center. So, I knit,” Armentrout told WBAL-TV 11 News. “When I was going through treatments, I knitted scarves for all the nurses and doctors.”

This year, Armentrout embarked on a project to knit a scarf that reflects the temperature for each day.

“I made myself up a card, so I do single-digits is lilac, and 10 to 20 (degrees) is purple; 21 to 30, and so on by 10 digits, within that range,” Armentrout told WBAL-TV 11 News. “I knit two rows, and whatever color I have decided for that temperature range, it’s like, ‘OK, I accomplished something today.'”

Armentrout first saw the idea on Ravelry, a social networking site that connects knitters from all over the world.

“My first thought was, ‘That’s weird.’ And then, it was intriguing as I looked into it,” Armentrout told WBAL-TV 11 News. “The original idea behind it, though, was actually tracking temperature changes. It was about climate change, to see how much it has changed over the years, and how we are being affected by climate change.”

Rose Armentrout embarked on a project to knit a scarf that reflects the temperature for each day. As Armentrout completes her first temperature scarf with a few days left in 2025, she plans to wear it proudly.

“I’m calling it my ‘Dr. Whoish temperature scarf’ because it’s very Dr. Whoish to me with all the colors, but it’s interesting, too, that you can see from the cold to the hot and back again,” Armentrout told WBAL-TV 11 News.

Armentrout is not finished with her knitting projects. She plans to knit another temperature scarf next year with the temperatures from her mother’s birth year, 1927, and compare them to this year’s temperatures.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Marie Miller

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    RANDALLSTOWN, Maryland (WBAL) — A man has died after a house fire Monday night in Baltimore County.

Firefighters were called around 10:14 p.m. to Cherrybrook Road and found the first floor of a home on fire.

One person who was inside was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. That man was identified on Tuesday as Herbert B. Thomas Jr., 67.

County officials said Thomas evacuated during the fire but went back inside to rescue his dogs. Two dogs and Thomas were found together, deceased, in the home, officials said.

Baltimore County Fire Battalion Chief Ed Schwartz told WBAL-TV 11 News there were issued with fighting this fire.

“Bystanders got the door open, which a lot of people think that helps out a lot. Unfortunately, what it does is it opens it up and oxygen gets in there and feeds the fire and it gets a lot hotter a lot faster,” Schwartz told WBAL-TV 11 News. “So, we’re trying to keep our ventilation openings closed as much as we can until we can get the water on the fire. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen tonight, so when we arrived, the fire was literally blowing out into the back yard.”

County police fire investigators ruled the fire accidental due to unattended cooking.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Juli McDonald

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    SEEKONK, Massachusetts (WBZ) — After the COVID lockdown, a Massachusetts couple decided to visit every city and town in the state. This year, they finally achieved their goal.

“I don’t think we’re done,” Jenny McBride said cheerfully, of her visits across some of our state’s most underrated communities.

“We look at this and see memories. I see Nantucket and think we went E-biking for the first time. I see Randolph, I rode a horse for the first time,” Jo Gray added.

351 cities and towns

Officially, they are “done”- crisscrossing the Commonwealth to visit each of the 351 cities and towns making up Massachusetts. This grand goal came to the Newton couple during the pandemic; out for some fresh air and heartbroken after their business closed for good.

“Same walk, same people, didn’t want to get close to people. We just got grumpy about it. We decided one day to take a walk in a different town,” they recalled.

And as the world opened back up, the adventure unfolded.

“Instead of what we can’t do, let’s see what we can do,” Jo explained.

Exploring while supporting small businesses

There were a few rules: they had to be together, and this wasn’t a drive-through. They researched, explored, and contributed to the local economy.

“Every time we came home, we were like, ‘We have to visit food!’ I got coffee from an independent roaster. I hadn’t bought coffee from a corporate place in so long,” Jo said proudly.

2025 was jam packed, but they delighted in the challenge.

“We still had Martha’s Vineyard, we still had Nantucket, we still had some Berkshire towns. By that point we were like we got this! We knew we were in the homestretch. Honestly, we kind of miss it already a little bit,” she said.

Even after living here for decades, they say discovering “home” helped them heal.

“It’s taught us that we can find goodness, we can find joyful moments everywhere. You just can’t prejudge a town until you go there and see it and talk to people and see what it has to offer,” Jenny said.

The women often left behind friendly cards to let locals know about their travels. If you’d like to learn more about their individual visits or find your town, visit their blog or find them on Instagram @Massachusetts351_jo_jenny

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Samantha Pastorino

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    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — A partnership program between the UNO School of Music and the UNMC Department of Neurological Sciences is studying how music can help Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.

“When we develop Alzheimer’s and dementia, the part of the brain that processes music is relatively unaffected throughout all the stages of dementia. So, if someone hears a song that they heard in their 20s or 30s, it can automatically trigger a ton of different emotions and memories,” Mary Perkinson, founder and director of Music & Memory, said.

Music & Memory’s overall goal: to contribute to the lives of older adults.

UNMC neuropsychologist Vaishali Phatak says there are lots of types of memories, but studies show music specifically can evoke memories of experiences that occurred in a person’s life, known as autobiographical memories.

“We find the music that we have listened to in our late adolescence or early adulthood can provoke the most vivid memories,” Phatak said.

That is why during a Music & Memory session, you will hear songs from artists such as the Beatles and see audience members’ eyes light up at the sounds.

“As we start playing and doing the sessions, there’s this light of recognition in their eyes, and they’re connecting with us on a different level,” Perkinson said.

Songs are performed by both professional quartets and the UNO Maverick String Quartet.

Perkinson says they hope those students are inspired to create programs like this of their own as they progress academically.

Members in the audience do more than listen at these sessions; they perform along with the music.

“I think it’s their minds going back and just having a clear recognition. They can smell the memory, they can feel the memory, they can touch the memory, and it’s like right in front of them. It’s the power of music that does that,” Perkinson said.

If you would like to support the Music & Memory program, click here.

Perkinson says all donations go toward research and the program’s growth.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.