Stefanie and her bandmates in local news feature

A local news outlet did a video feature earlier this month on the Hilliard Darby Marching Band. Sophomore Stephanie (who celebrated her birthday today, Sept. 27!) is seen marching and playing a couple of times during the four-minute report. In particular, she appears on the right side of the screen starting at about the 3:15 mark.

Stephanie moves to the center of the camera's view at the very end of the video.

Click here to see the full report.

You can also watch this video of the band's full performance at the Hilliard Band Festival.

Walk to win against Alzheimer's

Our family team at last year's walk

The New York City Walk Against Alzheimer's is just a few weeks away, on Sunday, Oct. 18. Captain Shanna is once again organizing our family team.

"I have been doing this a walk ever since soon after my Grandma was diagnosed and continue to do it in her memory," Shanna writes. "Hopefully one day, Alzheimer's won't be a part of life, but until then I'd love to show support for this cause and those touched by it."

The walk through Manhattan's lovely Riverside Park raises money for the Alzheimer's Association, which supports research into prevention, treatments and a cure for Alzheimer's and assists families coping with the disease.

To join our team of walkers and/or add your donation, please visit the team page here.

Marie starts new job with web-developer site

UPDATE: CodePen's announcement of Marie's hiring is here.

Marie started a new job this month, working for an online site where web developers can try out ideas and build portfolios of their work.

"I'm the all-around support, social media, and community outreach person at CodePen," Marie writes. She became the company's first employee, as the site's growth promoted its three co-founders to start building a staff.

One of the CodePen co-founders also runs another site for web developers, CSS-Tricks. Marie has been a writer and editor for that site since January (see previous story), and will continue to do so while working for CodePen, all from her home office.

Marie adds: "So, what the heck is CodePen? It's a front-end developer's playground where devs can experiment with code and share their experiments with the world. There's more info and a video here."

As it happened, Marie's first week in the new job coincided with her birthday. (The CodePen crew sent her donuts!) Her first post on the site's blog is here.

Together again on Birch Street

Dan, Kathy, Brien and Kevin managed the rare feat of being in Noyac at the same time on the weekend of Sept. 12-13. They posed together in front of the Birch Street cottage, like they did each year as kids spending summers there with Mom and Dad.

The three brothers spent Saturday doing some clean-up work on the property.

In the process, Brien and Kevin found a "time capsule" -- a handful of items that they and friends Madelon and Eric had buried in a plastic bag more than 40 years ago. They dug up the remains of a sneaker inscribed with their names, a toy car and an aluminum-wrapped piece of paper bearing cryptic phrases, whose significance has been obscured by the mists of time.

Kathy arrived later Saturday, and along with friend Robert, the group went to a local steakhouse for dinner -- followed by an amusing round of pool at a table on the premises.

Marching Band season under way for Stephanie

Stephanie and her bandmates in the Hilliard-Darby Panthers Marching Band made its debut performance of the season at a football game on Friday night.

It's Stephanie's second year playing clarinet in the award-winning band.