Cape Cod Healthcare Community Benefits recently awarded the Cape and Islands chapter of the American Red Cross a $7,694 grant towards the development of its training initiative for Brazilians in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillators.

This latest grant will help the chapter recruit and train five Brazilian and bilingual instructors and subsequently to train 150 Brazilians who are interested in receiving the training.

Tastes of Tashmoo

Tastes of Tashmoo, a benefit to raise funds to continue restoration of the Tashmoo Spring Building, is set for Thursday, July 19.

The event, sponsored by the Tashmoo Spring Building Preservation Committee, will be held at the Hines Point home of Denys and Marilyn Wortman in Vineyard Haven. For information, call 508-696-4202 or e-mail JJL@gis.net.

Martha’s Vineyard is privileged to have five lighthouses on its shores and a sixth at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum campus in Edgartown. Two more afar can be seen from the Island, sometimes even more at night.

This weekend all the Island’s lighthouses will be celebrated in what is being called the Martha’s Vineyard Lighthouse Challenge. Visitors from around the country who make a habit of visiting lighthouses are making a special trip to the Island to share their affection for these centuries old beacons of the waterfront night.

In this serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home to the Vineyard after many years in Manhattan. Her uncle Abe has been dumped by his wife Gwen, and Abe requires assistance to keep their landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. In the first few chapters, Becca reacquainted herself with Island life and through Mott (the general manager), met Quincas (a Brazilian), and the rest of Pequot’s staff.

June 13, 2008

Dear P:

Arts & Society presents the 30th annual Bloomsday celebration of music and drama based on the text of James Joyce, on June 16, at 8 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, Spring street, Vineyard Haven. Tickets are $18 general, $15 senior and student, and may be purchased at the door or at the Bunch of Grapes. For information, call 508-696-0539.

SLOOP: Restoring My Family’s Wooden Sailboat, An Adventure in Old-Fashioned Values. By Daniel Robb. Simon & Schuster, New York, N.Y. 2007. 318 pages with photographs. $25.

Etiquette Class, Please

Certified etiquette teacher Elaine C. Carroll is offering children’s etiquette classes. Her East Coast School of Etiquette program opens at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs on June 30, teaching children from 3:15 to 4:40 p.m., three days a week for two weeks.

A graduate of the American School of Protocol in Atlanta, Ga., and the Protocol School of Washington, D.C., Mrs. Carroll has visited many Vineyard classrooms over recent years to help children learn their manners in a program called Tea and Etiquette.

All are welcome to celebrate Juneteenth — an African American celebration of when all slaves were freed — on Saturday, June 14, at the Oak Bluffs School from 2 to 4 p.m.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the slaves in Texas were not notified of their freedom for another two years. This event is celebrated in many communities, though not yet a national holiday.

They are few but passionate, and Jhenn Watts is one of them: artists who create fine art photographic images, ironically, using good old Polaroid film.

Because of its simplicity and ease of use, the basic Polaroid process was an instant success in the mid 20th century, recording America’s birthdays, graduations and cookouts. Point, click and 60 seconds later, the graduate or birthday girl emerged on a slick four-inch by five-inch image, to be admired, then stored in a shoebox.

Nantucket’s rich history of bay scallop fisheries includes both commercial and family scalloping seasons. On Wednesday, guest speaker Dr. Robert Kennedy will detail the latest research into this fishery, in a free talk at Chilmark Public Library.

He will summarize of the history of the bay scallop and scalloping on Nantucket, outline past and present scallop research, discuss current management practices, status of eelgrass beds and water circulation in Nantucket Harbor, and review possible reasons for lower commercial landings in 2005 and 2006.