Mason Fischer

Mason F. Fischer of West Tisbury received a bachelor of science in computer science during the University of Vermont’s commencement ceremonies on May 23.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

In an incomplete building behind the Edgartown Fire Station on Pease’s Point Way, they talk fire. Not recent fires. This talk is about history and a growing group of firemen’s enthusiasm for preserving that history. It’s been burning in the department for years — to the point where they are building a new fire museum.

Some years ago, as a fresh washashore, I made the mistake of honking my car horn.

It was at the blinker, coming from Vineyard Haven on an off-season day. There were but two cars: mine, and that of the woman in front who had been unaccountably stopped, for maybe a minute, maybe less. I didn’t lean aggressively on the horn, just a little beep, to say “I’m here.”

The Holmes Hole Sailing Association commenced its summer season of handicap sailboat racing from Vineyard Haven harbor with a tune-up race on Sunday, June 20. It was a gray, humid early summer day at the noon start, with a brisk, west southwest wind of 15 to 20 knots.

Thirteen boats posted for the start gun at red nun 6 outside the Vineyard Haven harbor breakwater.

Richard L. Taylor, professor of business, law and ethics at Suffolk University in Boston, will be speaking at Union Chapel on Sunday, July 4 at 10 a.m. The title of his talk is The Declaration of Independence: A 21st Century Perspective.

What follows is a day in the life of Alma West, a resident at Island Elderly Housing, in her owns words.

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I get up early — I am a morning person and have a routine. I do most of all my own housework and everything. I cook a little less now, but still make my own meals. I try to walk a mile three days a week, going out to the Edgartown Road and back.

For 30 years it has been the Island’s best-kept secret.

And today Island Elderly Housing (IEH) also remains one of the Island’s best success stories, thanks in part to the original founders, Margaret Love, Marguerite Bergstrom and Carol Lashnits, who had a strong and far-sighted vision of what was needed for not only the elder citizens of the Vineyard, but for its disabled population as well.

Small Business Loans

The Southeastern Economic Development (SEED) Corporation has closed on five small business loans in the Cape and Islands totaling $750,000. The loans enabled the business to expand and create new jobs. Twin Oaks Inn received a loan of $75,000 under SEED’s Revolving Loan Fund for working capital for their bed and breakfast business in Vineyard Haven. Alison Shaw Photography received a loan of $50,000 under the same fund for working capital to prepare her fine art gallery in Oak Bluffs for the upcoming tourist season.

Katherine Graduates

Katherine Campbell of Vineyard Haven graduated from Emmanuel College, cum laude, with a degree in psychology, counseling and health on May 10.

Bird watchers the world over experience the frustration of “the one that got away.” It isn’t that we don’t spot the bird, it is that we did not see enough of it or have the bird in sight long enough to make a final call (identify it).