o ... To Sean McTaggart, whose quick thinking may have saved his former English teacher’s home.

McTaggart, who graduated in June from Worcester Central School, was walking by Kathleen Spooner’s home on Wednesday when he smelled smoke and heard an alarm going off inside the house.

When the alarm stopped, he called Spooner on her cell phone and found out she had just left in her car.

She asked him to check on the situation as she headed back home.

He entered the house through an open door and used a water can fire extinguisher to put out the smoldering magazines and mail that triggered the alarm, said McTaggart, who is a member of the Worcester Fire Department.

Spooner said that the fire probably started when she tossed mail onto the kitchen counter, which may have accidentally turned on an electric teapot.

Without the quick intervention, "I don’t know where my house would have been," Spooner said.

McTaggart is an "outstanding member who was in the right place at the right time," Worcester Assistant Fire Chief David Chase said.

We agree and applaud McTaggart’s efforts.

o ... To the organizers and participants of the Arc & The Arts in August, a month-long celebration of artistic expression.

The events included the exhibit Voice! and the City of the Hills Fine Arts Festival.

Voice! is the third annual juried exhibit of the creations of artists with intellectual and other developmental disabilities from across New York.

The 44 works from 37 artists are on display through Saturday at the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts gallery in Wilber Mansion in Oneonta.

First-place winner Erwin Durham, 63, of Schenevus, takes art classes at the Arc Otsego. He said he appreciated the opportunity to participate.

The fifth annual City of the Hills Fine Arts Festival, a juried open-air event featuring a variety of work for sale by more than 40 regional artists and craftspeople, drew about 2,000 to downtown Oneonta on Aug. 4. Proceeds from the festival went to support the work of the Arc Otsego.

Participating in artistic activities is a wonderful way for people to express themselves, and the Arc & The Arts in August events were a good way to showcase that expression.

o ... To everyone who took part in the Otsego Lake Cleanup Day on Aug. 4.

Volunteers from the State University College at Oneonta station helped clean up along the shore of the nine-mile-long lake. At the same time, they searched for the invasive plant water chestnut, one of which was found in the lake last month.

The focus of the day is for the community members around the lake to come together to help keep the lake and lake shore clean.

It’s good to see people work together to make their community a nicer place in which to live.