Storyteller par excellence Susan Klein captured the imagination of more than 40 people Saturday night at the Unitarian-Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard on Main street in Vineyard Haven, with her program entitled Silent Night, An Evening of Christmas Stories.

The raconteuse from Oak Bluffs opened with a sound check: “We’re recording all live performances from here on — just because.” Because, Ms. Klein explained, when she was old and gray she wanted to sit back and listen to us laugh again.

Again and again, it seems, Christmas brings us face to face with the same old question. Where does a rabidly materialistic society like our own get off celebrating the man who taught poverty by reveling in a superfluity of consumer goods? Perhaps they didn’t juggle exactly the same paradox, but the monks of 12th century England labored over the same vexing question of how best to reconcile Christian piety with the pull of earthly delights.

Wins Gift

Priscilla Summers of Williamsburg, Va., won a $100 gift certificate at Henley’s Needlepoint in Edgartown. The drawing, which occurred on Dec. 9, was the third annual drawing in conjunction with the Edgartown Board of Trade’s Christmas in Edgartown.

For the past three years, the static of nearby stations filled radio frequency 93.7 FM. On Friday morning a week ago, the static was replaced with silence. Around 4:30 p.m, there was a beep. And then a song came over the airwaves.

So that night, even as a slew of Island musicians took the stage at the Chilmark Community Center to raise money for an Island family, and as Islanders took cover from the steady drizzle and caught up with friends over freshly baked cornbread and homemade chowder, a radio from a car parked outside blared a steady stream of music.

Screenplay Winner

Dick Upson, a longtime Chilmark summer resident as well as a former Vineyard radio personality on WVOI-FM, just won the 2007 Horror Screenplay Competition’s Grand Prize from the Rhode Island International Film Festival for a horror film that is set on the Vineyard.

Mr. Upson is a professor of communications at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I.

Wreath Ceremony

American Legion Post 257 will lay seven wreaths at Oak Grove Cemetery in Vineyard Haven at noon Saturday, Dec. 15 to honor those who gave their lives in service for our country.

Specially made wreaths for the U.S. Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines and Prisoners of War/Missing in Action will be placed on memorials in a ceremony.

Actors to play the voices of Zeb Tilton, the historian Henry Kittredge, and the writer and Mystic Seaport curator John Leavitt are being sought for the film Zeb — Schooner Life. Open auditions will be held at the Vineyard Playhouse on Tuesday, Dec. 18 from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Interested parties should call Detrick Lawrence Productions at 508-627-8844 to make an appointment.

Seabird Monitoring Program

Seeks Vineyard Volunteers

The Martha’s Vineyard Senior Environmental Corps and Massachusetts Audubon Society Wildlife Sanctuary at Felix Neck are teaming up with the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine’s Seabird Ecological Assessment Network to study the health of seabirds on the Island through beached bird surveys conducted by volunteers.

Maritime Art Show

Sail Martha’s Vineyard’s Maritime Art Show is receiving an enthusiastic response from the community. The open house reception this past Sunday night welcomed more than 60 guests to the Sail MV building on Main street in Vineyard Haven, where gifts and work produced by 21 artists are on display.

More than 14 pieces have been sold, raising funds for Sail MV to continue its sailing and rowing programs on the Island. The show will run through Dec. 22.

Katrina Volunteers

More than two years after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, volunteers still are cleaning up and rebuilding areas ravaged by the hurricane.

Skip and Mary Ann Danforth of Chatham, through the United Methodist Committee of Relief, have been leading such groups of volunteers, returning to Louisiana four times. They will be leading another group from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2.