Navy Ensign Brett A. MacLaren, the son of Navy Capt. Ron J. MacLaren of Oak Bluffs, recently completed the Navy nuclear power training unit course at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, Goose Creek, S.C.

Ensign MacLaren received instruction about nuclear theory, chemistry, physics, reactor operations, safety and security. Upon completion of the course, he was designated a nuclear power operator.

Skip Petersen, a graduate of the Pratt Institute of Fine Arts, presents a gallery show of her work, which she defines as “abstract oil in very bright colors” — hence the title of the show, Brilliance.

The exhibition opens tomorrow, Saturday, August 2, at the Pebble Building of Featherstone Center for the Arts, with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. The show will hang through August 13.

Island Insurance Agency

Hires Account Executive

Martha’s Vineyard Insurance Agency has added Carrie-Lynn Whitney to its sales staff at its Edgartown office.

Ms. Whitney, a 20-year veteran in the insurance industry, has joined the agency as an account executive. Most recently, she has been employed as a benefits consultant handling national accounts. She has relocated from Connecticut to Edgartown.

Sheriff’s Meadow: Tracking the Future

This has been a painful summer for the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, the venerable Island conservation organization that was rocked at the outset of the season by the revelation that two of its signature sanctuaries had been dug up by an Island landscaper who was transporting native plants to a private property on the West Tisbury North Shore.

Shine a Light

On an Island where the dire lack of low and moderately priced housing is a perennial issue, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission is right to require a public hearing on an affordable housing proposal from the developers of the Field Club in Edgartown.

Recently I was privileged to see a per formance of End Days written by Deborah Zoe Laufer and directed by Claudia Weill at the Vineyard Playhouse. This quirky family comedy underscores the vulnerabilities and aspirations of human beings who have survived trauma and the threat of annihilation. We laugh with the characters, who include a pious and ever-patient Jesus and Stephen Hawking as the marijuana-induced hallucination of Rachel, a disaffected, black-clad teen.

PIVOTAL CHOICE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following letter was sent to the Dukes County Commission:

Speaking as friends of the county, we believe that the manner in which the county commissioners fill the unexpired term of Paul Strauss will be both pivotal and crucial.

The scene: a corridor in the Congress Hotel, Chicago. The time: mid-afternoon on a sultry July day in 1952. The cast: four or five radio reporters, a Chicago Tribune staffer, a photographer and a couple of reporters from the Associated Press and United Press. An air of expectation hovers over the scene.

There are times in our lives when incidents in the lives of people we do not know take on such profound meaning that we want to learn more. For me that came through a conversation with my husband, Bill Baker. He had heard the Very Rev. Dr. James A. Kowalski, dean of The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York city, speak at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs.

The story the dean told in the church was so powerful that I felt an imperative to speak with him personally. I wanted to know more of this story.

Receives Degree

Tonya Leonard, a member of the class of 2008 at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., received a bachelor of science degree summa cum laude with honor in education studies.

Prior to commencement, she received the John P. Shepard Prize in Education Studies, named in honor of a former professor and given annually to the student who has demonstrated outstanding performance in both academic achievement and field work in education.

She is the daughter of Pia and Richard Leonard of Vineyard Haven.