BY LIZA STROUT - It was another successful year for Boca Bargains. This Saturday marked the close of the 2012 shopping season at the island institution, and true bargain hunters were there early to snag their brown paper bags and a good spot in line.

Thanks to Boca Grande’s Hope for Haitians Committee, dozens of Haitian families left homeless by the 2010 earthquake are one step closer to leaving the tent cities of Port-au-Prince and moving into their own sturdy homes.

More than $300,000 has been raised by the group, which leaves just $56,000 to go.

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church has announced it has called the Rev. Michelle Lyn Robertshaw as its new rector. She will replace retiring priests, the Rev. C. Read Heydt and the Rev. Cappy Warner.

Dramatic poses, costumes and freedom of expression are sure to draw most children’s attention, and Dodie Headington knows it. She has been teaching The Island School students an elementary art-history program called “Learning to Look” for two years, and the kids have responded brilliantly to her techniques.