Chilmark is ready to celebrate! Happy holiday to all and may the sand be in your shoes and not on your hot dogs! The crowds have been gathering all week and the students who were only recently released from school are enjoying their freedom. The activities are mostly outdoors and even the showers that seem always in our future aren’t discouraging the good times from being planned. Cheers to us all!

The Chilmark Community Center is open and the booklets are in the mail and available at the center. Please note—and this is important to many—that page 33 is in error and should not be referred to for the Chilmark Free Public Library Summer Lecture Series for 2015. The correct schedule will be available at the community center and the Chilmark library and the center will include the corrected page with every booklet they distribute now. Coming up on Wednesday, July 8 at 5 p.m., author John Hough will conduct a dialogue writing workshop. John is the author of a number of books, including his latest, Little Bighorn: A Novel. He is a writing workshop teacher on the Vineyard.

The Wednesday program for July 15 will be Tracking Dogs in Wildlife Conservation with canine trainer Karen Ogden. The program will be at the library at 5 p.m.

Chilmark library children’s librarian Kristin Maloney urges all young folk to sign up for the summer reading program so that they may earn prizes from local businesses. Please ask for details at the library or by calling 508-645-3360.

Two Chilmark artists will be displaying their works at the Field Gallery in West Tisbury beginning July 19. Wendy Weldon and Colin Ruel will be attending the artists’ reception on Sunday, July 19 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the gallery.

Allan Arffa and Kay Matschullat are at their Flanders Lane home and eager for the arrival of their three children. Kathryn will arrive on Saturday from San Francisco where she lives and works. She is looking forward to visiting with her friends who will gather here for the Stars and Stripes concert this week. Their daughter Leslie comes July 10, returning from a year of study in England, and their son Travis will arrive Thursday for a holiday from his summer job in New York city.

Chilmark resident Monina von Opel is busy organizing a celebration of the publication of Poems from the Pond by the late Peggy Freydberg. The program will be at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center on July 27 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. There will be wine, cheese and poetry to be read by a most respectable list of women in the arts. They include Brooke Adams, Nancy Aronie, Geraldine Brooks, Laurie David, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Paula Lyons, Tamara Sloan and more.

Wesley Cottle is back at his South Road home after a week in New Jersey visiting his daughter and grandchildren.

Thornton and Sandra Klaren are at the dock in Menemsha for another season of life aboard their boat, Jest. They are the parents of police officer Jonathan and grandparents of Kelly. They have been coming to Menemsha from their South Dartmouth home for many summers now and we are always glad to see them.

The Harrison-Parker family (Rebecca, David, Meghan, Isabel and Phoebe) came to town from their home in Carlisle this week to check in on their eldest daughter, Sophie. She is spending this summer working at Menemsha Texaco and at the Home Port Restaurant before she leaves for her freshman year at the University of Vermont.

Hillary Noyes-Keene traveled to Montreal last week with her children Lathrop and Ella to attend the U.S. women’s soccer team game against Germany. It was part of the World Cup soccer series. I am sure that was fun for all.

The Balaban family, Sophie, Susan and Jason, are now at their Wayside Farm home for the summer with lots of summertime plans already made.

Harriette Otteson is back at her home on the Menemsha Crossroad after another exciting trip to Europe. This time she spent 18 days traveling in Norway, Sweden and Finland. She spent six days on the mail, freight and passenger vessel Nordlys. It departed Kirkenes, Norway, and traveled to Bergen, Norway, with many stops at towns big and small along the way with deliveries. The passengers were able to disembark at some of the towns. While in Finland, Harriette visited with some cousins who live there. The rest of the trip consisted of couch tours of Norway and Sweden. Harriette celebrated her 80th birthday while on the trip and managed to find a memorable way to mark the occasion. While in Oslo, she enjoyed a zip line ride that was the length of the Olympic ski jump in that city. Happy belated birthday, Harriette!

Send Chilmark news to slaterjn@comcast.net.