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JESSICA FINCH Associate Editor

• COOKIE TIME - Girl Scouts are known for their cookies, and not one to disappoint, the Girl Scout Council of Buffalo & Erie County is introducing two new cookies and a new "look" to another. The council serves more than 11,000 Girl Scouts and 5,285 adult volunteer members within Erie County, North Tonawanda, and sections of Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties.

New this year is the sugar-free Chocolate Chip cookie for those on sugar-restricted diets or just watching their sugar intake. Lemon Chalet Créme is the second cookie being launched this year, and All-Abouts is showcasing the Girl Scouts' motto of "Building Girls of Courage, Confidence and Character." I was lucky enough to get a preview sample of the lemon and chocolate chip cookies, and will go on record and say they are just as good as the traditional favorites.

Cookies are now on sale for $3 per box. None of the Girl Scout cookies contain trans fats. For more information on where to purchase the cookies, call 837-6400, ext. 242.

• LIONS GARAGE SALE - The Amherst Lions Club will hold a garage sale from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6 in Trinity United Methodist Church, 711 Niagara Falls Blvd., Amherst.

Club president Richard Teetsel said that every $6 spent at the sale will save the sight of someone around the world through the Lions "Campaign SightFirst II," which is in the process of raising $150 million for vision programs.

Medication purchased and distributed through Campaign SightFirst II is used to prevent people from going blind from drinking polluted water in Third World countries. Other funds help send volunteer doctors around the world to run vision screening clinics that detect and lead to treatment for eye diseases and also help to distribute used eyeglasses to people after vision screenings. The Amherst Lions alone collect more than 5,000 pair of glasses for this program every year.

by DAVID F. SHERMAN Managing Editor

• HISTORY SURVIVES - Ron Korman, Gino Covelli, Kevin Lester, Susan Holt and Don Holtz have each helped the Williamsville schools to acquire a collection of 19th century newspapers and government reports. Korman is the proprietor of Muleskinner Antiques; Covelli and Lester are Williamsville teachers; Holt is a retired Williamsville science teacher and Holtz is a retired Williamsville social studies teacher.

Holt acquired the well-preserved newspapers and documents from her father's estate while Holtz catalogued the materials and put them into a useable form. Holtz also discovered a lesson plan contest sponsored by the History Channel and the Civil War Presentation Trust. The contest calls for use of primary source materials, exactly what the donation entails. Featured are copies of the New York Independent from 1860-65 and 1868-69; Philadelphia Inquirer, 1861-64; Philadelphia Public Ledger, 1859-60 and 1868-69; Atlantic Monthly, 1864; and reports of the auditor general of Pennsylvania, 1855, 1856 and 1862, as well as other documents.

Use of the materials is being coordinated by Karen Greco, the district's social studies coordinator.