When Sandy Pimentel from the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services board of directors called me back in January to ask if I would consider hosting the 2013 Possible Dreams auction, taking up the gavel where legendary humorist Art Buchwald left off, I was completely blown away.

The Island community raised more than $450,000 for Martha’s Vineyard Community Services at the Art Buchwald Possible Dreams Auction Sunday night, an amount expected to increase still by the end of the week. The total surpasses last year’s amount by at least $50,000.

Martha’s Vineyard Community Services’ Chicken Alley Thrift Shop would like to thank the Troy Neuenburg and the Sand Bar in Oak Bluffs, Deejay Ricky Prime and Dukes County Love Affair (DCLA) for the very successful and fabulous good time had by all at the Mad Men party to benefit Community Services last Friday night.

What to do when you are an organization dedicated to helping the community and wondering how to create a new logo? If you are the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS), you ask the community.

Welcome to the 2013 Community Logo Contest. Everyone is invited to enter the contest and the winning entry will appear on all internal and external materials of MVCS. Logo entries may be sketched by hand or designed electronically. The deadline for entries is April 5.

A Southborough executive with four decades of experience in public and private human services work has been named executive director of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, the agency announced late Tuesday.
Juliette E. Fay was most recently executive vice president and chief development officer for The Mentor Network, a $1.2 billion national human services company.

What would Milton Mazer say? The late Dr. Mazer, the Vineyard’s first psychiatrist whose pioneering work in the field of rural mental health led to establishment of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services more than fifty years ago, would no doubt be proud of the institution that he helped to found and that still stands today as the Island’s oldest umbrella social services agency.

With the hiring of a new director of development and community relations, planned changes to its annual summer fundraiser, and a continued search for a new executive director, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services is spending its winter on a forward path.

“I’m excited; I’m looking forward to this next phase,” said Victor Capoccia, chair of the nonprofit organization’s board.

That next phase involves a greater push for outreach and connection in what is already an invaluable resource for many on the Island.

Through conversation and rainy walks around West Chop, Art Buchwald, William Styron and Mike Wallace — dubbed The Blues Brothers — battled depression together.

And then the three men, each luminaries in their field — Mr. Buchwald, a humorist, Mr. Styron, a novelist, and Mr. Wallace, a journalist — took their struggle with mental illness public, using their talents and fame to lessen the stigma of depression and other illnesses.

In the memory of three well-known Vineyard residents who struggled with depression, a special fund has been established through Martha’s Vineyard Community Services to support mental health counseling services.

Called the Blues Brothers Fund, the fund honors humorist Art Buchwald, novelist William Styron, and journalist Mike Wallace, and is meant to raise money and awareness for those struggling with mental illnesses.

The statistics sketch a picture of the other Vineyard, the one rarely seen or understood by those who harbor images of the Island as an idyllic vacation spot. Substance abuse rates here are 21 per cent higher than the state average. There are high levels of depression and domestic conflict and violence. The Island has a significant Brazilian community whose people are often isolated and apart, and sadly sometimes targets of ugly acts of racisim.