Drumbeats will echo out across the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs on Saturday evening, and anyone drawn by them towards the open-air Tabernacle will see flashes of color in constant motion and hear the voices of the Watoto Children’s Choir, a singing group from Uganda.

Uganda is currently home to more than a million orphans who have lost their parents to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. About 20 of them will be performing on the Vineyard at the end of the choir’s six-month tour of the United States.

Jeanie Mathis has never been to Martha’s Vineyard or any part of the East Coast. She lives in Reevesville, Illinois, population 50. Yet she knows about the Island because she reads every issue of the Gazette . . . twice. “I read it at the shop [a hair salon in her home] and then I reread it at night,” she said.

LOCAL HEROES

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

We the People

Our country celebrates its two hundred and thirty-fifth birthday on Monday and the national holiday will be marked by colorful parades, fireworks displays and picnics from sea to shining sea, including here on the Vineyard where Islanders of every stripe will pause to commemorate the founding of this great nation.

And on the eve of this Independence Day, the endless debate continues among Americans about who we are as a people, what we stand for as a nation and what are the principles and values that guide American society.

The Edgartown historic district commission has ordered a cease and desist on construction of a large fence being built on a North Water street home.

The order was issued to Edgartown contractor John Nugent on Wednesday to halt activity on a new granite and wood fence and granite curbing at 93 North Water street, as well as a brick retaining wall along Cottage street which runs perpendicular to the property.

West Tisbury town administrator Jen Rand picked up her phone last week and heard the words no one has heard in at least three decades.

It’s been an on-again, off-again summer for amplified music on the Oak Bluffs harbor and this weekend the bars on the water will go quiet after selectmen voted to reverse their music policy on Tuesday. Again.

Tisbury selectmen have given the latest site superintendent of the town’s new emergency service building two weeks to show he can rescue the trouble-plagued project or follow his two predecessors out the door.

The board’s decision, taken reluctantly on Tuesday night, was taken despite advice from the town’s project supervisor, recommended against the appointment of Dennis Mason as the permanent site superintendant.

The morning after fellow campers and I arrived at Camp Jabberwocky, we went with our fun-loving counselors to music class in the camp’s studio. We sang Rocket Man by Elton John. I must admit our singing was very rusty, but as the month progresses it will vastly improve.

Rocket Man will be one of the songs for this year’s play — Jabberwocky Presents The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — which will be written and directed by my counselor for the summer, Michael Leon.

Slamming It Down Streetball Style

The gameball is for kids at the annual streetball classic held in Niantic Park in Oak Bluffs on Saturday, July 2. But that doesn’t mean the stands won’t be packed with basketball fans of all ages and, even more importantly, skills.

Dr. J. has attended. More recently Ray Allen checked out the scene. It’s anyone’s guess who will stop by this year but no matter, really, because the real stars will be on the court.