5 Things You Need to Know Today: Dec. 27

Our weekday morning column, 5 Things You Need to Know, provides you with information that can help you plan your day and give you some fodder for water cooler conversations.

1. Leah Socorro, a teacher at Stacy Middle School who has a friend in Newtown, CT, is helping to gather snowflakes, for a project that will welcome students back to the new school for Sandy Hook students. According to Milford Superintendent Robert Tremblay, they plan to create a winter wonderland and are requesting paper snowflakes of all kinds, as no two snowflakes are alike.  Please contact Leah Socorro at lsocorro@milfordma.com if you would like more information. 

2. Did you know you can direct up to a 1 percent match of your purchases at Target to the Milford public schools? The fund, with the monies provided by the retail corporation, helped to provide a replacement set of math texts at Milford High School this year. According to the Target site, 65 people have selected the high school as their choice for the education program.

3. If you are in the giving mood, and want to make a direct contribution to a classroom project, visit the Donors Choose website, where teachers can post specific requests for classroom items they think will make a difference for students. Teachers in Worcester County, including Uxbridge, have requested rugs for their Kindergarten classrooms, document cameras and other items. No Milford teachers, so far, have made a request for funds.

4. Now that most everyone has a cell phone, everyone can take photos quickly. Do you have a favorite photo of the past year? Upload it on to the best photos gallery and you could win a $25 gift card.

5. Milford didn't make it into the top 25 finalists for the Patch Deck the House contest, but two houses in Rhode Island did. And one, in Coventry, is now in second-place with more than 6,700 votes. Check out all of the finalists and vote for your favorite.