About a year ago I was channel surfing, and I came across a familiar voice. Anne Carmichael Lemenager was broadcasting a girls field hockey game. I was impressed. She was really good.

“How did you learn how to broadcast sporting events?” I asked her recently over a cup of coffee in her living room.

“Trial and error. I edit all the shows I produce. So I see my mistakes. They jump out at me. The hard part is to learn all the names of the girls on the opposing team. Often I have less than fifteen minutes.”

Anne shoots, edits, and broadcasts several sporting events played at the high school. In addition, she is the sports reporter on the weekly MVTV news show. “I often have help with student interns. It’s good to have two or three cameras filming an event.”

“But you do all the editing?

“Yes. It’s my show.”

Anne started producing television shows for MVTV eleven years ago. “Gus Ben David was retiring from Felix Neck, and I wanted to capture his wisdom on camera. We produced over 30 animal shows together.”

“And you did all the filming and editing?”

“Yes.”

“And this was all self taught?” I asked again in amazement.

“Yes,” she said with a smile.

MVTV is public television on Martha’s Vineyard. It is a nonprofit corporation funded by Comcast. It just so happens that Anne chairs the board. “Each of the six towns on the Vineyard has one member, and there are seven at-large members. We have a good group. There is widespread consensus on most of the issues we deal with.”

“It sounds like you have a full-time job with MVTV?”

“I do spend a lot of time there. It helps I’m retired from the high school.”

“Do you get paid for any of this work?”

“No. It’s all volunteer. MVTV has four full-time paid employees, but all of our shows are broadcast by volunteers. The paid staff is there to assist.”

“Do you have any exciting plans for the future? I would love to be the vehicle for some ‘breaking news.’”

“Yes, we do. I’ll be happy to give you a scoop. We are currently building a kitchen at the studio. Now this kitchen is a little more elaborate than your everyday kitchen. It has to have special lighting, and all kinds of special equipment. But the exciting thing for me is that once it is completed I’ll be doing a cooking show.”

“That does sound exciting.” Stay tuned. You won’t want to miss her.

Finally, the Patterson family welcomed the first of its sixth generation to the family home on East Chop Drive. Augustus Roswell Patterson, known as Gus, is the son of Doctors Gil and Emily Patterson of Rochester, Minn Gus made his Vineyard debut over the Fourth of July weekend. The family home was built by great-great-great-grandmother Grace Peck in the 1930s. Gus is also the sixth generation to bear the Patterson family name of Roswell; great-grandfather Roswell Patterson passed away in October of 2014. Gil is a veterinarian currently pursuing a master’s degree in public health at University of Minnesota. Emily is chief fellow of laboratory science at the Mayo Clinic. Six generations of East Chop Pattersons. That’s a family home that has really worked!

Send East Chop news to herricklr@verizon.net.