L’ Shana Tovah to all welcoming the new year! What beautiful weather to greet it with.

Sarah at Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living has a request for new volunteers. You decide the dates and the hours. The next training is Oct. 20. Please call them at 508-939-9440 or email lesliec@mvcenter4living.org.

Katie Viera, who also works there, reports that a Yoga for Living workshop will take place on Saturday, Oct. 1. Sign in is at 8:30 a.m. at 29 Breakdown Lane in Vineyard Haven. The cost is $125 for the day. It is a fundraiser for many of our Island nonprofits.

Katie also informed me that there will not be a Walk for Alzheimer’s on the Island this year. There are walks in many communities on the Cape.

Bye-bye to Gretchen Baer and the HillCar. They both departed last week after a wonderful summer spent in Vineyard Haven at the home of her mom, Jacqueline Baer. Mother and daughter spent the summer re-connecting with family and friends, making incredible artwork, having a show at the Cleopatra Lounge and touring in the HillCar. Gretchen is safely back in Bisbee, Ariz. to run Studio Mariposa, her art school there.

Sofia Anthony announces that the next Neighborhood Convention will be on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 11 a.m. at the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury. Bring a sack lunch. The speaker will be Tim Boland of Polly Hill Arboretum. He will talk about the Martha’s Vineyard Wildtype: Growing Nature in Your Yard.

With great sadness, our NAACP of Martha’s Vineyard reports the resignations of committee members Marie Doubleday and Jen Gadowski. They both did a memorable job.

On Saturday, Sept. 24, we held our fifth annual Darkness Into Light walk supporting suicide prevention work. It was well attended.

Continued get well wishes go out to Jane Hawkes and Carolyn Walters.

The birthday bandwagon pulled along Trip Barnes on Sept. 21. Bruce Campbell celebrated on Sept. 22. Scott Dario, Tekla Silva, Judy Federowicz and Jeffrey Madison partied on Sept. 24. Pedro Carvalho, Penha Prata, Lindsey Gonsalves and Daniel Gardella claimed Sept. 25. Sept. 27 shined on Linda Tydings Massaro, Armando Abundiz, Lauren Candace and Kate Ruggerio. And on Oct. 3, William Francis Maciel takes the cake. Many happy returns.