This Thanksgiving’s Macy’s parade will feature the usual faces: a giant turkey, Santa, an inflatable Charlie Brown balloon. And yet one face on television will be familiar to folks on Martha’s Vineyard for more personal reasons.

Island Grown Initiative is one step closer to transforming Thimble Farm into a local food source for Island schools.

The Oak Bluffs harbor is closed to shellfishing until further notice following a minor oil spill Wednesday morning.

A 50-foot tuna-fishing boat has taken on water, causing leach of oil into the harbor, town officials said.

After receiving a call around 7:50 a.m. Wednesday morning reporting a fuel smell and a sheen on the water, shellfish constable David Grunden notified the fire department, which dispatched their oil recovery team to the boat tied up at Church’s Pier, by Nancy’s Restaurant.

Falmouth Academy will host an information session for Martha’s Vineyard families on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.

The Edey Foundation is accepting applications to fund nonprofit conservation and environmental programs.

The Martha’s Vineyard detachment of the Coast Guard Auxiliary will be offering a two-week course on GPS skills for recreational boaters. The course will run Dec. 4 and 11, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the regional high school.

A portion of Lagoon Pond on the Vineyard Haven side was closed to bay scalloping this week to protect a healthy crop of seed scallops in the area.

I was thinking of commenting on our weather the last week or so. I can’t remember such an early ground-covering snow like we had last Tuesday. It was especially odd, but beautiful, to see snow cover on trees with so many leaves remaining.

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?

What do clay-colored, vesper, fox, tree, white-crowned and white-throated have in common? They are all types of sparrows that visit the Vineyard in the fall and winter.