SAVE THE FARM

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Coming back to the Vineyard after a few days on the Cape, I realized that one of the things to which I was most looking forward was picking up our Community Supported Agriculture farm share tomorrow.

At this time of year particularly, we are always greeted with a bounty of fresh vegetables, most of which are already picked and ready for us to take and a few which we might have the pleasure of picking for ourselves. Unlike many other CSAs in the country, where the food arrives in a box every week, we have the pleasure of seeing our farm and reveling in the beauty of the land.

We believe that land that is designated as farm use should remain available for actual farming, rather than being turned into another weekend horse farm.

In this particular case, the land bank should be applauded for purchasing the rights to the land so that it would stay rural but we need to go one or more steps further and see that the farm is sold, or leased, to our own Community Supported Agriculture organization.

When you see how hard Andrew Woodruff and his helpers work, you want this work to be recognized for how important it is to our community. Some of us help with the planting, others with the harvesting and many, many reap the benefits, including summer visitors who stop by with their children to pick strawberries and flowers.

Penelope Dixon

and Michael Ball

Chappaquiddick

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ISLAND HOSPITALITY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I would just like to take a moment to share a very welcoming and pleasant Vineyard experience with you and your readers. I was scheduled to do a training at 5:30 p.m. at the Vineyard Haven Library and missed the ferry that would get me there on time. Frantically searching for an alternative mode of transportation, a fisherman, Mitch Pachico and his son Glenn, volunteered to take me to the Vineyard. They refused to take any money saying that it was good old Vineyard hospitality and that some day I could offer the same to someone else. Not only did I meet two very hospitable men and have a great boat ride but I made my training.

Thank you, Mitch and Glenn.

Maura McAvoy

Boston

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ART AT FEATHERSTONE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Your editorial Summer Arts Revival in July reported on the arts including music, theatre and dance, and lectures. Your remarks on the visual arts focused on the Dukes County avenue arts district.

Featherstone Center for the Arts is also part of the Oak Bluffs art scene. On Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs, Featherstone celebrates its 11th birthday this year. Featherstone is the Island’s only year-round arts facility and provides art classes and activities for Island children and adults and for visitors as well.

Come and see Featherstone.

In any season of the year you may come any afternoon from noon to four for a look at gallery exhibits, for a stroll on our six-acre campus, and for the experience of the new labyrinth near the pottery barn. Among many classes in autumn you may learn about ceramics or tapestry on Mondays, sculpture, figure drawing or color theory on Tuesdays, stained glass or flute on Wednesdays, oils, pastel painting or digital photography on Thursdays, and jazz appreciation or watercolor on weekends.

Please keep Featherstone in mind — and in print — as part of the Vineyard arts scene.

Jean McCarthy

Oak Bluffs

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FAB FIVE CORRECTED

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

It never fails to amaze me, the speed with which the waters close over and the ripples cease, once someone, even of prominence, has left us. But the otherwise very informative article by Julia Rappaport (titled Island to Honor Unlikely Ladies’ Fight for Rights), does pay homage to an event in our past, and as such, may I make two comments: It’s Virginia Mazer, not Mazar — you got it right in the caption — but then, the order of the Fab Five’s names was wrong. That’s Polly Murphy, Nancy Whiting, Peg Lillienthal, Virginia Mazer and Nancy Smith, in that order. Kudos and blessings to each, and may we continue to honor them all.

Sara Crafts

Oak Bluffs

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ON THE TRAIL

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The Heritage Trail recently dedicated its 19th site, and its first in West Tisbury. We honored the courage and integrity of five courageous women Peg Lilienthal, Nancy Smith, Nancy Whiting, Virginia Mazer and Polly Murphy who risked their safety and the good will of their community by taking a heroic stand on the issue of justice and civil rights. A plaque placed at the old library on Music street in West Tisbury lists their names and their honorable achievement.

It was a gorgeous day and the families and friends of those who were being honored turned out in strength. Our thanks to all of them, to the local businesses who supported us with their donations, to master craftsmen Eben Armer and Everett Whiting for their beautiful work in installing the plaque, and all the others who helped.

It was a great day, and it’s a wonderful site on the trail. We urge you all to stop by and pay your respects to five brave ladies.

Elaine Cawley Weintraub

West Tisbury

Carrie Camillo Tankard

Oak Bluffs