This past weekend Featherstone Center for the Arts sponsored an Island-wide tour of artist studios. Seventeen painters and photographers, one tapestry designer and one jeweler welcomed us to their homes and working studios. We met artists we had never met, were introduced to their work, traveled down and explored roads we had never traveled before. Our thanks to the artists and to the hardworking staff and volunteers who made the weekend tours so successful with maps and artist biographies, and put a finishing touch to the weekend event with a great party at Featherstone. Thank you Featherstone, and Island artists!!
The Realized Dream Project is hosting an electronic waste collection on Sunday, Sept. 16, at the cliffs of Aquinnah. The collection will be from 1 to 8 p.m. and include any electronic equipment that still works but is no longer wanted, including TV’s, microwaves, computers, cell phones and more.
On Sunday, Sept. 23, from noon to 8 p.m. there will be another collection at Menemsha Town Beach by the Texaco station. From 4 to 8 p.m. there will also be a community pot luck jam and concert featuring Adam Lipsky and friends.
I have never met Barbara Schlesinger and have no relationship with her whatsoever, yet I am compelled to write to the editor. I have never in my life written a public letter. This woman and her family need our support. She obviously cherishes the Vineyard as we all do and yet our local elected officials have failed to preserve our coveted Island. The Allen Farm has made a mistake. It needs to be corrected and the beauty of our Island needs to be preserved.
The Pit Stop in Oak Bluffs is a great place for listening to music and Saturday, Sept. 15, Marc-Alan Burnette with Kiley Evans and Dawn Kenney (soon to play Carnegie Hall), hit the stage. What makes this evening different, though, is that on the same day, Mr. Burnette will be giving a songwriting workshop at 279 Pond Road (Deep Bottom Pond), West Tisbury.
Mr. Burnette calls the workshop Bridge Building, New England to Nashville. A resident of the music capital of Tennessee, he has written hits for Shelby Lynne, David Ball and John Berry.
On Tuesday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m., Dr. Elliott Dacher, author of Aware, Awake, Alive, will give a talk at the Vineyard Haven Public Library. The talk will be about the practice of meditation, a subject on which Dr. Dacher is well-versed. The title of the talk is also the title of his latest book, the most recent of four books about the practice of meditation and its positive effects on overall mental and physical health.
We are writing this letter with a heavy heart. Recently native Tim Fullin was diagnosed with cancer. Tim is going through chemotherapy treatment; he is the husband of Linda and the father of three children who are all locals as well — Veronica, T.R and Keith. Tim is a grandfather, uncle, brother, son and an amazing friend. We have all known the Fullin family most of our lives. Most of us went to school with their kids and had Tim service our burners. They are one of the first to help out when you’re in need of anything, night or day. Thanks to the help of Island people and businesses, we will be able to hold a benefit auction at the P.A. Club on Nov. 3. Dinner will be from 4:30 to 7 p.m.; a live auction will begin at 7.
Next Friday, Sept. 21, the Edgartown Council on Aging in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Services of Cape Cod & the Islands, Inc. is offering a free memory screening. These screenings help identify people with potential problems who may need more extensive evaluation. Please note, this is a screening not a diagnosis, but participants will receive information to be shared with their primary care physicians.
The screenings will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 10 Daggett street in Edgartown.
Appointments are necessary. Call 508-775-5656.
Glenn M. Zafonte of West Orange, N.J., writes angrily of a frustratingly inconvenient experience he had recently in getting ferry space leaving the Vineyard (Vacation Ruined, Sept. 7). His anger is directed at the SSA, which he believes, “does not seem to care . . . has no heart . . . [and] makes little effort to be friendly or cordial.” I could not disagree more strongly, and our experience with the SSA could not be more different than what Mr. Zafonte describes.
Adult and Community Education of MV (ACE MV) is hosting a series of three seminars focusing on healthcare reform policy. The six-hour class will be taught by Dr. Grace Sullivan and will help participants make more informed healthcare choices.
Among other health-related courses, ACE MV is offering six classes sponsored by the American Red Cross, including standard first aid with CPR.
ACE MV also offers a course called Essential Science to help prepare students to take the TEAS test, a prerequisite to nursing and allied health career courses.
The Republican nominee for POTUS, Mr. Romney, has been introducing himself to voters by his middle name, but will that be the name on his line in the ballot next November? Not if he has to fill out a printed three-by-five card like those we use for everything else, with space for a first name in full and a box for a middle initial. No matter what family and friends may call us, in any officially printed context, the three-by-five formula prevails.
