Island first responders fielded a 10 member team for a Boston Strong First Responders workout marathon last weekend at Gillette Stadium. The 26-hour endurance event was a fundraiser for The One Fund Boston, which aids victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

At 6:45 a.m. on a Saturday
morning near the Poucha Pond salt marsh at Chappaquiddick, a few fishermen lined the shores and a handful of binocular-bearing biologists and birders walked through the dunes. Otherwise, the land was bare of human activity.

But in the sky a bird with deep black and bright white striped wings swooped nearby. The binoculars went up.

“That’s a willet,” said Luanne Johnson, director of the nonprofit BiodiversityWorks dedicated to wildlife research, monitoring and mentoring.

The Old Sculpin Gallery begins their summer season with a new manager, Jennifer Kowal, fresh out of a museum studies masters program at Johns Hopkins. Ms. Kowal, a native of Canterbury, Connecticut, began her post in April.

The previous manager, Kat Cope, resigned last winter as her own artistic career has begun to consume more of her time. The manager position is an “extremely demanding job,” which is suited to a young person, said Sara Aibel, president of the board of directors of the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association, which is housed at the gallery.

Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs begins its 2013 season on Sunday, June 30, with a slate of visiting preachers, some returning for their second or third visit and others preaching here for their first time.

Thirty artists and thirty members of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club are combining their talents to produce a double dose of beauty this weekend. The artists will create paintings while garden club members will create floral arrangements that capture the artist’s work. The result is Bloomin’ Art 2013, an event modeled after the Museum of Fine Art in Boston’s Art in Bloom show, an annual celebration of floral arrangements inspired by the museum’s masterpieces.

Aquinnah celebrates the Fourth of July with its 10th annual children’s parade. Floats, antique cars, face painting, music, buried treasure on the beach and town officials will all be part of the festivities.

The parade starts at 11 a.m. sharp at the top of Old South Road.

Three downtown divas arrive on the up-Island dance scene this weekend.

New York choreographers Jodi Melnick, Vicky Shick and Jon Kinzel are performing at the Yard in Chilmark today and tomorrow, June 29 and 30, both performances beginning at 8 p.m.

The stage is set at Alex’s Place at the YMCA every Friday night in July and August during open stage nights. Singing, dancing, performing stand-up comedy — you decide on community open stage night. A candlelit atmosphere sets the mood and all equipment is provided.

Jim Thomas and his Spirituals Choir will perform on Saturday, June 29, at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven. The choir is in its ninth year and is the offspring of the Martha’s Vineyard NAACP. The performance is titled, Songs From the Field: The Underground Railroad.

The choir performs at many venues around the Island and is made up of summer residents and year-rounders. They perform sitting down as the slaves did, and only with percussion accompaniment.

Each week the folks at Cinema Circus show a series of short films on Wednesday evening at the Chilmark Community Center. The films begin at 6 p.m. but the circus — complete with jugglers, face painters, stilt walkers, food and music — gets under way at 5 p.m.

The short films are programmed each week around a central theme, introduced in the first film by Professor Projector. This week’s theme is sound tracks.