Our daily column, 5 Things You Need to Know Today, will help you to get your day started and offer you some fodder for water cooler conversation.

1. Today is Columbus Day. Schools are closed. See What's Closed, What's Open, by clicking here.

2.  October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Sunday, the Framingham Youth Cheerleading D Squad had pink pom poms on their sneakers, pink ribbons in their hair and cheered with new pink metallic shakers at their game against Wayland. The C squad also had new metallic pink shakers. Attached to this report is a few photos of both Framingham Youth Football Cheerleading teams.

Framingham Patch will have reports from the games against Wayland later this week.

3. During a national skills competition, Keefe Tech students Daniel De Oliveira of Framingham received a penalty on his score in error. He contacted SkillsUSA officials, contested the score, and after their review, he was declared the national bronze medalist in Welding Sculpture. Recently, the 2012 graduate was awarded his medal.

4. Simchat Torah at Temple Beth Sholom at 6:30 p.m.

5. Last week Framingham Patch blogger and Framingham mom Samantha McGarry talked about her love of laundry, this week she talks about how she re-loads the dishwasher after her husband. Take a few moments this long holiday weekend to read her blog post.