For 21 years, El Reno’s Blessing Baskets has orchestrated, with the help of the community, a Christmas Basket program that has helped brighten the season for many in the area.

And organizers say the ongoing pandemic known as COVID-19 is not going to stop the effort this year.

Blessing Baskets is planning to help more than 700 local families that will include more than 1,000 children with the Christmas Basket 2020 Program.

Candidates for the Board of Education in 11 Canadian County school districts will file their Declarations of Candidacy beginning at 8 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 7, and continuing Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 8 and 9, according to Canadian County Election Board Secretary Wanda Armold.

Armold said the official filing period ends at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 9.

All candidate filings will occur at the Canadian County Election Board, 200 S. Bickford Ave.

The Craft Brewers Association of Oklahoma (CBAO), in partnership with Equity Brewing, is announcing the inaugural Oklahoma Pint Days Nov. 28-29 to celebrate Shop Small Saturday and Small Brewery Sunday.

Craft beer fans can get their limited-edition collector’s glassware exclusively at 28 breweries across the state, including Expedinture Brewery in Okarche.

Each glass is $10 and comes with one free beer of the brewery’s choice. The glass is yours to keep and collect.

Oklahoma set a record for COVID-19 hospitalizations last week, and the United States reached a grim milestone of more than 250,000 coronavirus deaths.

After earlier surges in the spring and summer, the country is now in the midst of the feared fall coronavirus surge and we’re peering into the darkness that winter will bring. With more than 1,500 Oklahomans now hospitalized and new positive cases averaging more than 2,600 per day, it’s time for Oklahoma to act.

On Nov. 17 and 18, Oklahoma reported COVID-19 daily records for hospitalizations, ICU patients and deaths.