The annual Evening Under the Stars benefitting the Martha’s Vineyard cancer support group is on Tuesday, May 14, at Lattanzi’s Restaurant, 19 Church street in Edgartown, beginning at 6 p.m. The charitable group, now in its 26th year, provides emotional and financial support to Island cancer patients and their families. More than 400 Vineyard families have received assistance, totaling over $58,000 in grants last year alone. More than $500,000 has been given over the years to those on the Vineyard dealing with the stress that comes with cancer.

For a year and a half, meetings about Island veterans health care drew crowds expressing their outrage at the long wait for on-Island health care. But on Wednesday, about seven months after a contract was finally in place, the tone was quite different: instead of concerns, there was mostly silence, and instead of outrage there was appreciation.

Falmouth Academy will host an admissions open house from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 11 for families interested in finding out more about the school. Falmouth Academy students, teachers and parents will discuss their experiences at the school. A van will pick up Vineyard families at 12:45 p.m. in Woods Hole and return to Woods Hole in time for the 3:45 p.m. ferry.

We had left Arizona and were in a campsite at a campground near the Rio Grande River in Big Bend National Park, Tex. In preparation for our trek the following day, we played the recording of the colima warbler over and over again while preparing dinner. We knew we would only find this rare warbler if we heard it first.

The Arts at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center will present the San Francisco-based early music ensemble Passamezzo Moderno in a concert of 17th Century instrumental music from Rome using original instruments. The concert will be held in the Harriet B. Freedberg Learning Center at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, 130 Center street in Vineyard Haven, on Thursday, June 13 at 7:30 p.m. It is sponsored by the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society.

In honor of Memorial Day, Jonathan Auerbach will bring his second annual Brave Women, Brave Men benefit concert to the Vineyard beginning at 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 26, at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center in the Tisbury Market Place, 79 Beach Road in Vineyard Haven. Mr. Auerbach will peform original music along with vocalist Carole Charlin and percussionist Alejandro Carreno. Local veterans will also attend the concert.

With just two weeks to go until Memorial Day weekend, restaurants are making their final preparations for the season: sprucing up interiors, finalizing menus and making new hires. And while most of those hires are waitstaff and kitchen crew, some establishments have new leadership in the chefs themselves. Several Island chefs have moved to new homes, bringing different flavors to establishments from Menemsha to the Tisbury Marketplace.

Magnolia trees would do well to befriend beetles but leave bees behind.

Apparently I have an aversion to following my own advice. I decided to peruse some of my mid-May columns from years past. I was hoping to plagiarize myself. Last year I lamented how things have changed in the world. Honestly, how old am I? I commented on geraniums, impatiens and tomato plants for sale and how I believed the purchasers would be sorry. They never are and I never put those annuals into open ground until almost Memorial Day.

Sam L. Larsen, 22, of Edgartown, graduated summa cum laude from American University School of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C. Sam is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the son of Dan L. and Marie Larsen, who with other family members will attend his May 11 graduation. His interests are government and law. “He ain’t going fishing,” said his father, who owns Edgartown Seafood.