New Life For Old Shoes, Neighbors Exchanging Free Stuff

Middletown Patch's new weekday feature gives you tidbits of information that you need to know about town. Check back daily for news you can use and pass along to your neighbors.

• At Thursday's Central Business Bureau meeting at the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, Yankee Gas and DOT reps will talk about the Main Street (North End) Gas Reliability Project beginning in September. At 8 a.m., according to Mitch Grossman, spokesman for Northeast Utilities, attendees will learn about the installation of a half-mile of new gas pipeline. Work should conclude in the spring of 2014. The hope is customers will get a more reliable system and NU will more easily add new customers in the area. Construction will take place at night and motorists should expect lane closures. 

• There are many options to donate your worn-out shoes and sneakers around town — any of the various collection boxes in merchant parking lots or the Goodwill on Washington Street. But did you know Echo Trading in the Main Street Market collects footwear of all types — even single shoes — for Soles4Souls, a global nonprofit that distributes shoes and clothes to people in need. The group, based in Nashville, Tenn., also provisions qualified micro-enterprise programs designed to create jobs in poor and disadvantaged communities. Since Dec. 10, 2010, Echo Trading has donated nearly 1,000 pairs of shoes to the organization. Also, The Middlesex United Way's 211 site also has a list of places, including the ABC Women's Center, Rushford, Connecticut Valley Hospital and The Connection, in Middletown which accept clothing donations.

• Two great local online groups work to keep unwanted household, electronics and other items out of the landfill by "freecycling" them via a new owner. Middletown's Freecycle Yahoo group includes Portland. Some recent exchanges: croquet set and camp chairs, fresh corn on the cob, boys water shoes, women's Nike golf shoes and a beaded door curtain. The Middlesex Don't Trash It Resell/Recycle Facebook group. Recent posts include a woman looking for board games to resurrect her family's game night and a single mother hoping to get donations of bedroom furniture for her children. Click on "Join Group" to start recycling.

• Artist Bill Reville's paintings of New England are on view at the New England Emporium in Middletown's Main Street Market. A percentage of the sales will be donated to Wesleyan University's radio station, WESU 88.1-FM, where Reville hosts Acoustic Blender Tuesdays at 5:05 p.m.