Today's 5: Blood Drive At Middle School

The has an ambitious goal for themselves today: They want to collect 200 pints of blood, an amount that could save up to 600 lives. They need the community's help in achieving their goal.

Each day the "5 Things" column offers five essentials about your day in Plainview. We want to engage our audience in the topics, events, and hot-button issues that are important to them. Help us do that by adding your voice. Add it to the calendar or send us a . Post a comment on the news and the issues that matter most to you.

On Monday:

1. The POB PTA Council will hold its annual Winter Blood Drive Monday, from 10:15 am- 9:30 pm at the Plainview Old Bethpage Middle School. From 10:15 am until 3:30 p.m., donors will give at the Bloodmobile outside the school. After school hours, the blood drive moves indoors to the POBMS cafeteria.

2. The senior group meets at noon at . The special guest is our own cantor, Rich Pilatsky, who will present a and other goodies. 

3. Tonight at 7 it's the at .

4. It's been a busy news week followed by a busy holiday weekend. Catch up on the most recent news in Plainview by reading our

5. All this month...Patch is paying special attention to the holidays. For example, we have stories about holiday fire safety, ways to volunteer and donate, special gifts for kids, and

Do you have an event that deserves special attention in Patch? A school play? A fund-raiser? A need for volunteers? We want all of them and plan to publish them prominently and throughout the month in our UPDATED Holiday Guide.  Send your stories, photos and publicity needs to Local Editor at  Joe.Dowd@patch.com.