Savor the moment, she said; it was her favorite phrase. Della Brown Hardman, the distinguished artist, educator and volunteer died in December of 2005. And now each year the last Saturday in July is set aside in the town of Oak Bluffs as a day to remember her. The fourth annual Della Hardman Day is tomorrow and a series of events are planned to celebrate the arts, as Della did so beautifully in her own life.

Della Hardman, an artist, educator, writer and columnist, was a pillar of service in the Vineyard community.

She died in December of 2005, but not before enjoying Oak Bluffs’ first Della Brown Hardman Day in July of that year.

“We didn’t realize it would be her last year,” Ms. Hardman’s daughter, Andrea Taylor, said of the first event. “It was a wonderful celebration. A great way for her to look back on her career.”

Della Hardman had the soul of a West Virginian, the heart of a Vineyarder and an unparalleled curiosity for life. This weekend, the sixth annual Della Hardman Day event will celebrate what Mrs. Hardman encouraged everyone around her to do: savor the moment.

The painted wooden sign resting on the base of the podium in Ocean Park read Savor the Moment, and when celebrated poet Sonia Sanchez stepped to the microphone to begin her program during Della Hardman Day on Saturday, it was impossible to imagine doing anything else. Words on a page are poor conveyors of the rhythms and intonations of Mrs. Sanchez’s commanding voice, which has been holding audiences rapt for decades.

What follows are the three winning essays from the annual Della Hardman essay contest at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. Students were asked to write opinion pieces about the use of digital devices at the high school. Winning essayists will be recognized at the annual Della Hardman Day event in Oak Bluffs on Saturday, July 28. The Gazette publishes the winning essays annually in advance of the daylong event which celebrates the arts and literature each year on the last Saturday in July.

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By BRIAN HURLEY