* Applause to everyone who is helping bring us today’s Veterans Day Parade at 1 p.m. in Elkins. Lineup for the parade will be located next to the Southern States store in South Elkins and will begin at 11:30 a.m. The parade will take place rain or shine, and will run up Davis Avenue before going onto Fifth Street and concluding at the Elkins Railyard Depot. Later today, Elkins American Legion Post 29’s annual Veterans Day Dinner will take place Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. Tickets to the dinner are limited, and all veterans attending will eat free due to donations from Sons of The American Legion Squadron 29. The guest speaker for the dinner will be Marty Broderick from Operation Firm Handshake. The dinner will take place in Calain Hall and tickets are available. On Tuesday, the annual Elkins Veterans Day celebration will take place at the All-Veterans Memorial on the corner of Harrison and Railroad avenues. The event will begin at 11 a.m. and will feature guest speakers and comments from community leaders.

* Applause to the volunteers who are manning the Montrose Community Store during its Open House event today. The public is invited to the Open House, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today The store, which is run entirely by members of the Montrose community, will offer an array of candies and baked goods for sale, as well vendor demonstrations, raffles and more as the community celebrates one year since the store officially opened its doors. Community members opened the business as a convenience store designed to meet the needs of a remote, rural area. The store’s management team answers directly to town council. Vendor demonstrations will run today from 11 a.m. through 4 p.m. during the event, which will feature instructions on how to decorate sugar cookies (11 a.m.), and how to make wood slice ornaments (noon), snowy candle jars (1 p.m.), beaded ink pens (2 p.m.), charcuterie boards ( 3 p.m.), and pysanky eggs (4 p.m.).

* Applause to all the firefighters and volunteers helping to battle the Monongahela National Forest’s “Woodside Fire” in Pendleton County. The wildfire had consumed up to 200 acres and continued to burn into Friday evening, officials said. The Forest Service said that approximately 70 personnel, two crews, one dozer and one helicopter were fighting the fire, with helicopter water drops on the blaze beginning late Thursday afternoon. The Woodside Fire is located in the area of Vance Run, near Big Mountain and off WV State Route 28, close to the border with Highland County, Virginia. The Pendleton County Office of Emergency Services said that firefighters from Pendleton and Pocahontas counties, and from Highland County in Virginia, were “battling the fire in extreme winds on a Red Flag Day.”

* Applause to the team of dedicated volunteers who constructed a 22-foot Christmas tree at the Rotary Amphitheater in Elkins Town Square Wednesday, with the help of Kathy Vance of Kathy’s Decorating & Design, Smith Backhoe and Dozer Services. An official lighting ceremony for the tree will take place at a later date.