Garden Manager

Becca Munro has been named garden manager at the Farm Institute. She will be managing the farm’s eight-acre production garden, including its produce CSA program, its local farm stand and its stand at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market.

From farm country in southeastern Pennsylvania, Ms. Munro is a graduate of Warren Wilson College.

Talking Water

Felix Neck needs birders and sponsors to participate in Mass Audubon’s 27th year of birding competition. Birders and donors raise money for Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary and its programs by getting pledges per number of bird species seen or making a donation to the Felix Neck team.

The 24-hour competition starts at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 14, and runs through 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 15. But you don’t have to participate the entire time — rotating shifts among teammates is encouraged.

Slow Food Potluck

Everyone is welcome at a Slow Food potluck dinner on Thursday, May 20, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury, where the topic for the evening will be permaculture.

Adult Farming Programs

The Farm Institute in Katama is expanding with adult programming — 11 weeks of workshops for grownups, on Wednesday afternoons (from 1 to 3 p.m.) and Saturdays (from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) this summer.

Upcoming courses include: Building Solar Ovens with Steve Ruzanski Solarazza, Pickling with Sheila BenDavid, an Eat Global, Cook Local ethnic cooking series with Jan Buhrman and Robert Lionette, as well as mushroom cultivation, cob building, fermentation, and canning, jamming and drying!

Connor Gifford, a 28-year-old man from Nantucket, was born with some extra chromosomes. Sometimes that little bit extra can be a burden; other times, a boon. But it will always mean that Mr. Gifford has Down syndrome.

Roughly one out of 1,000 people are born with Down syndrome. They share specific and easily-recognizable aspects of appearance and behavior, similarities in facial features, body type and difficulties with speech and cognition.

The Edgartown selectmen opted not to accept a letter of resignation submitted by affordable housing committee member Alan Gowell at their meeting Monday afternoon.

“I’d like the opportunity to talk with him,” said town administrator Pam Dolby. “I think it would be a great loss to the affordable housing committee.”

The new Martha’s Vineyard Hospital was expected to receive approval for a temporary parking plan last night from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, clearing the way for the Oak Bluffs building inspector to issue a certificate of occupancy and employees and patients to begin using the $48 million, 90,000-square-foot facility on Eastville avenue.

Wine and Dine

The Sweet Life Café is hosting a wine dinner series to benefit The Yard, beginning on Wednesday, May 19, at 6 p.m. at its Circuit avenue location in Oak Bluffs, featuring John Larchet, the proprietor of the Australian Premium Wine Collection, stopping by before heading to the Nantucket Wine Festival.

When the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital embarked on its recent major expansion, it triggered Massachusetts Department of Public Health regulations to ensure that the expansion is needed and that the hospital gives a percentage of the project’s total cost to the community for health initiatives. As a result, the hospital will provide $1,075,000 for Vineyard community health projects over the next five years. This money will be available to the community through a grant process sometime in the late summer or early fall.