HUNTLEY - When Huntley High School teacher Renae St. Clair paired her Medical Academy students with Sun City pen pals last fall, she had one goal in mind: to foster the critical skill of being able to converse with a stranger.

The result? Mission accomplished. The evidence? Those strangers quickly turned into friends.

“Easily five hundred letters have gone back and forth in the span of a couple of months,” said St. Clair. “I did not expect it on this scale.

HUNTLEY - Fall festivals are favorites for many families, but along with the pumpkins and hayrides is a harvest of new restrictions thanks to COVID-19.

“We cannot have our bouncies, like our pumpkin jumper or inflatable train,” said Liz Halat from Tom’s Farm Market in Huntley.

Cafe dining is outside only. And for chilly days to come?

“It does get cold, and we will provide extra seating in our greenhouse,” said Halat.

Enhanced sanitation is a sign of the season at Goebbert’s Pumpkin Patch and Apple Orchard in Pingree Grove.

HUNTLEY, Il - Leggee Elementary School’s popular Buddy program shut down when the coronavirus cancelled classes last spring. Now, with schools still shuttered for safety, the gap has widened between students in need and their volunteer lifelines, many of them Sun City residents.

“I have volunteers who have been with me since the beginning,” said District 158 Volunteer Coordinator Eileen Delahanty. “These people are like my family. I’m very concerned for them.”

Leggee is currently in remote learning mode, but, pre-pandemic, its hallways were dotted with cozy clusters of students and their Sun City Buddies learning reading and math one-on-one.