FROM MENEMSHA

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Thank you to everyone who helped put out the boathouse fire on July 12. Without this all-island effort, so much more would have been lost. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

Barbara and John Armstrong

Menemsha

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SAIL MV CORRECTION

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

We would like to correct the misstatement in an article about Sail Martha’s Vineyard in last Friday’s Gazette. We are not the founders of Sail Martha’s Vineyard. We are employees who are privileged to work for a board of directors who are committed to carrying out the vision of the founders.

Sail MV was founded in 1992 by a group of citizens who cared about the maritime heritage of the Island and getting kids on the water. Among that group were Ralph Packer, Nancy Hoffmann, Nancy Haskell, Joe Hall and many others. They deserve the credit.

Hope and Brock Callen

Chilmark

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WRONG FACT

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

With all due respect to Hope and Brock Callen and the fantastic job they do and their years of being at the helm of this organization, they were not the founders of Sail MV. That distinction belongs to the late Nancy Haskell and Nancy Hoffman. It was their vision and determination (along with Barbara Oberfest, Joe Hall, Ralph Packer, Thomas Hale, Matt Stackpole, Duncan MacDonald and many others) to get Vineyard kids out on the water “messing around in boats” that brought Sail Martha’s Vineyard to life. It was a dream of Nancy Haskell’s that there be a high school sailing team and kids learning to row in wooden boats. (Without Brock, the sailing team never would have happened.)

So many people over the years have had a hand in making this a success story and hundreds of Island kids have benefited from the program.

In a July 2009 article, the Gazette had the correct names of the founders. This just goes to show how important it is for newspapers to get their facts straight.

Maria McFarland

West Tisbury

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FLIGOR MEMORIES

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

How delightful to see the Fligor family mentioned twice in one issue (July 9)! The Fligors was such an instituion in Edgartown; I still miss it. Every summer, my sisters and I would save our babysitting money so we could buy a new sweater from the fabulous “sweater wall” at the store when we would visit in August. Thank you for the memories.

Sandi McDonnell Lessing

Bayshore, N.Y.

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READER FEEDBACK

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following letter was sent to Thomas Dresser:

Congratulations on African Americans on Martha’s Vineyard: From Enslavement to Presidential Visit. I enjoyed reading it and am very impressed with your ability to say so very much in relatively few pages. I also liked the way you organized the material and I can see how much time you spent reading the small print of articles and reports. The book will enlighten both the newcomer and the old residents.

I have two other points to make: the pages devoted to Bob Tankard and Tom Bennett were too many and not interesting enough to warrant that much space. Perhaps you could have still included the exchange but in fewer pages. I also want to suggest again that in your delivery speech only a brief explanation of your interest in the subject is necessary. Of course, as more people read the book, they will see, as the children say, “where you are coming from.”

Finally, I do think you did an excellent job of interweaving the exceptional with the ordinary. I did not see any errors but I must say, I have no idea who Mabelle Thompson’s sister is or was (Page 107). During my days at Smith there were only four other African American girls in the college — the entire college. I hope to see (meet) Mabelle and have her refresh my memory.

Again, thank you for a most informative and well-written book, and my hopes that it will be widely read and appreciated.

Adelaide M. Cromwell

Vineyard Haven