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.

The overwhelming response to the Spice of Life Memoir Organization and Writing course taught by Susan Klein last spring has prompted the Tisbury Senior Center to host another in January and February of 2008.

Interested would-be memoirists who would like to work on their life stories for their own pleasure, as a legacy to family and friends, or for publication should call Susan Klein at 508-693-4140 as soon as possible to reserve a slot.

Classes will run Thursdays Jan. 3 through Feb. 21, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the Tisbury Senior Center on Pine street.

The Chilmark Library will hold a big used books sale, just in time for holiday shopping. Great bargains — hardcovers, books on tape and videos are $1, paperbacks are 25 cents, from Dec. 15 to 19. Everything goes half price Dec. 20 to 24 and then it’s free Dec. 26 to 31. Open during normal library hours, as follows:

Saturday, Dec.15, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Monday, Dec. 17, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec 18, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 19, 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

By LYNNE IRONS

I was happy to read Abigail Higgins’s column in the Martha’s Vineyard Times last week. She wrote about the National Animal Identification System. I wrote about it in my September column from information I gleaned from the Hightower Lowdown.

Apparently, the plot has thickened. Several Islanders have received letters from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources informing them that they are already enrolled in the program unless they “opt out” by mail on Dec. 14.

I guess I will call him lonesome George for want of something better. Last year Gus Ben David got a call from someone at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport saying they had a weird partridge-like bird hanging around. Gus identified the bird as a chukar.