So your son or daughter loves to sing and dance? This is the fun part of your kid’s performing life, before the off-off-Broadway auditions and the cold-water apartments and the jobs waitressing across from Lincoln Square.

J.B. and Heidi Blau, owners of Sharky’s Cantina, the popular Island eatery with locations in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, have been selected by the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce to receive a Build a Better Mousetrap Award from Cape Cod SCORE at its 17th annual awards breakfast. The event is Thursday, May 20, at the Old Yarmouth Inn.

Build a Better Mousetrap Awards will go to 17 small businesses that have survived the critical first five years of operation and appear to be headed for long-term success.

Dean’s List

Kendall Tyler Chaves, of West Tisbury, has been named to the dean’s list at Babson College for the fall 2009 semester.

Dean’s List

Kimberly Montanile of Vineyard Haven has been named to the dean’s list at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for the fall 2009 semester.

Dean’s List

Sagitta Woodman of Vineyard Haven, a sophomore at Salve Regina University, was named to the dean’s list for the fall 2009 semester.

Next Friday, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School will hold its first Brazilian Awareness Day, in an effort for students to become more acquainted with the cultural heritage of the South American country that is homeland to many Islanders.

“It’s going to be a series of events,” said Elaine Weintraub, a history teacher at the high school who is organizing the event.

Spencer Booker was reelected as an Aquinnah selectman with 71 votes at the annual town election Wednesday. Mr. Booker currently serves as chairman, and this will be his second term on the board.

There were no contests in the election, which saw a turnout of 71 voters, just under 18 per cent of the town’s total registered voters.

Rosemary Gambino, owner of Rosecuts Salon on Causeway Road in Vineyard Haven, is spearheading a Vineyard effort to collect hair, fur and wool trimmings and nylons to aid in the cleanup of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that has spewed millions of gallons of crude oil since the April 20 explosion.

Longtime Aquinnah moderator Walter Delaney remembers, years ago, spotting an unexpected visitor sneak into a town meeting. It was a warm summer night, and he had just gaveled the meeting to a close when a skunk strolled through the front doors and settled in beneath a chair in the back of the room. Calmly, the moderator directed the other meeting attendees out the side door, careful not to alert them to their curious guest and spark a potentially smelly panic.

Stan Hart won’t have to wait much longer to see his life all bound and done. Happily finished.

The order has been placed for copies of his novel; paperbacks should be available by early next week. And a proof copy of his other, nonfiction book was delivered to his bedside on Wednesday.