A Pennsylvania man charged with stealing more than $85,000 worth of jewelry and other items during a series of August home break-ins was sentenced last week to serve 18 months in a house of correction.

Damien N. Derose, 28, of Doylestown, Pa., pleaded guilty Sept. 27 in Edgartown district court to eight counts of breaking and entering a building in the daytime for a felony, six counts of larceny from a building, one count of attempt to commit a crime, one count of larceny more than $250 and one count of malicious destruction of property more than $250.

You have another shot at dancing the night away at the one and only family disco party — the Family Dance-O-Rama. The dance party is on Sunday, Oct. 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Flatbread in Edgartown. Pair your pepperoni pizza with a little hustle and join DJ Shizz for some family fun. Admission is free. Call 508-693-1137 for more information.

Better warm up those vocal chords because an Island tradition is on its way. The All Island Choral Festival is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Performing Arts Center next to the regional high school. Roberta Kirn will be working with student musicians preparing them for the event.

Whatever your favorite — milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate or semi-sweet — the Art of Chocolate Festival will have a treat for you. The 10th annual Art of Chocolate Festival kicks off with a preview party outside under the tent at Featherstone on Friday evening, Oct. 11, from 6 to 8 p.m.

An autumn yoga retreat sounds like just the thing to help prepare for the changing seasons. Amanda Cohen offers a yoga retreat at the Chappaquiddick Community Center on Oct. 12 and 13 from 9 to 11 a.m. on both days. She will move the two groups through breathing techniques and postures to help usher in the quiet season.

Join the land bank staff and take a guided walk of Three Ponds Reservation on Chappaquiddick on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. Meet at the Brine’s Pond trailhead at the Chappquiddick Community Center off Chappaquiddick Road and don’t forget your boots.

Island mom Sarah Waldman is organizing a screening of the award-winning film Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives on Thursday, Oct. 17 at Edgartown Cinemas. The film captures a spirited group of women who teach themselves how to deliver babies in a 1970s commune.

The Irish have been scattered to the four corners of the earth since 1607 when the defeated Earls fled to Spain hoping to return to fight another day with the English armies overwhelming their country. By the 1680s, France had become their destination of choice, and all Irish children learn the story of Patrick Sarsfield who gave his life for his adopted country during the religious wars, mourning only that he was not dying for Ireland.

For the months of October and November the Beach Plum Inn is offering an Island Dinner Series, which translates to a special meal featuring a menu sourced from different farms every Thursday night.

If we want written accounts of Island life before the Gazette began to publish in 1846, we must usually rely on letters, town records, deeds, wills and diaries, many kept at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, some at the newspaper office, others at the county courthouse.