The arts took center stage in Vineyard Haven this week as three cultural organizations received grants from the state. Selectmen also voted to approve creating an application to form the Vineyard Haven Harbor Cultural District.

On Monday, the Vineyard Playhouse, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum and the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center were awarded capital grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund. Of the 10 projects funded in the southeast region, three are in Vineyard Haven.

It’s late June and few people are thinking about politics, even though a campaign to elect a new U.S. Senator from Massachusetts is in its final days.

A special state election will be held on Tuesday to fill the seat left vacant by John Kerry who left in January to take the job as U.S. Secretary of State.

The two candidates for this key Senate seat could not be more different.

Islanders by this time of year have become accustomed to the early-morning sight of yellow buses rolling over Island roads that stop with brightly flashing lights to collect their precious cargo: clusters of children standing at the end of long dirt roads with books, backpacks and iPods, their hair still wet from the shower.

On the surface it seems like a simple and straightforward equation: more seals equals more great white sharks. The connection, however, is likely far more complicated.

A few weeks ago, the Gazette’s front page story on the aging of the Vineyard population hit home. From the story we learned that the number of Vineyard residents 60 and older is growing at a faster rate than the rest of the state, and that some estimates show that the number of Islanders between the ages of 60 and 70 will triple by 2020.

For almost a third of my life I was a world traveler. I kept a journal from every trip I took and made an album of all the places I went. I visited over 25 countries, and I tried to bring home a souvenir from each — everything from a Japanese yukata to a stone found on the Great Wall of China. I have a bow and arrows I bought from a Sanjo boy in Tanzania, sand from the Sahara and an Alpaca blanket from Peru. A small rug from Morocco is on my bedroom floor and I drink my morning coffee from a small mug I bought in Wales.

The warm sunshine last Saturday didn’t deter bread buyers at the annual bake sale organized by the Vineyard Committee on Hunger — better to buy a loaf of homemade bread than heat up the house with a hot oven. There was oatmeal bread, all-grain bread, cranberry bread and even gluten-free cornbread for sale as the group put up tables outside the Bunch of Grapes bookstore in Vineyard Haven, hoping their collection jars and handouts on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) budget cuts might raise awareness of those who go to bed hungry at night, even on Martha’s Vineyard.

Chilmark softball — always on Sunday, started 80 years ago at Hazel Flanders’s back lot. It moved to Toomey’s field and is now ensconced at Flanders Field off Tabor House Road. Did you know that Jerry Kohlberg, owner of the Vineyard Gazette, once played in the games?

The League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard wants to remind Vineyard residents that Tuesday, June 25 is election day.

This election day is the United States Senate special election in Massachusetts to fill the Senate seat vacated when Senator John Kerry resigned in order to become U.S. Secretary of State last January. During this period, Mo Cowan, appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick, has served as our interim U.S. Senator.

In the debate two weeks ago between Ed Markey and Gabriel Gomez, who are running in a special election on June 25 for the U.S. Senate, a stark contrast emerged between Markey’s long history of “yes” and accomplishment in the U.S. House of Representatives, and a surprisingly negative campaign by Gomez.