The Vineyard Golf Club Foundation has announced the donation of about $66,000 in cash in the past year to nonprofit organizations on the Island.

The foundation also gave more than $24,000 in donated golf games in the past year. These games generated even more money when auctioned for the benefit of Vineyard nonprofits.

Over the past six years, the foundation’s cash and golf-game donations total more than $652,000.

To fund the foundation, each member of the Vineyard Golf Club is asked to give a minimum of $500 annually.

Charter School Tours

The Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School has scheduled visiting days for the coming weeks. Informational tours will be held for parents interested in learning more about the charter school on Wednesday mornings from 9 to 10 a.m. on Jan. 16, 23 and 30, Feb. 6, 13 and 20. Please call the school at 508-693-9900 to sign up for a visit.

A New Energy Course

With the passing of the holidays, winter stretches out before the Vineyard. Islanders bracing themselves for the season’s short days, long nights and pervasive isolation are facing an added burden this year: heating costs forecast to rise twenty-five per cent over last year’s levels.

Comparing the Ferries

Nine months ago, the Steamship Authority ferry Island Home replaced the ferry Islander on the Woods Hole-Vineyard Haven route. Now that Vineyarders have had some time to ride the new vessel, how does she stack up against her venerable predecessor? In what ways does the vessel excel the Islander, and where does she lag behind?

In Defense of Yo-Yoing

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

In view of the fact that I am already considered by many in the “sport” fishing community as one of those dirty commercial bass fishermen, it will do little to hurt my reputation to shed some light on the history and practice of yo-yoing that has been conveniently overlooked in the knee-jerk and poorly considered reaction to lead weights being found in several derby fish this year.

Looking for something a bit different? Well, in a quiet way. Next time you’re off-Island with nowhere particularly to go you might try Hopedale. It’s a small town in the Mill River Valley near Milford. In fact it was once part of Milford, but had a very special history beginning around 1840.

Hard Work, Simple Pleasures

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of January, 1975:

Renewal, the theme of a new year, has turned Islanders to the past to rediscover some of the old-time values and joys for 1975. Reactions here to the recession nationwide resemble lessons from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance — above all the individual is asked what he can do for himself.

The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4,000 years ago when the new year began with the first new moon after the vernal equinox, which we know today to be the first day of spring. At that time it was thought that the planting of new crops was a logical time to start a new year.

Greetings from the sophomores and best wishes for 2008 to all our readers.

For this special issue, students reflected on the world that they are living in, and their own personal aspirations for the new year. Our young people feel strongly about the state of the world, our overuse of its resources, world peace, fear and the war in Iraq. They hope for a better world. Let’s hope and pray that the world does not disappoint them.

— Elaine Cawley Weintraub,

Sophomores Speak Out, advisor.

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My New Year’s Resolution

VINEYARD BIRDS II: Where and What to See on Martha’s Vineyard. By Susan B. Whiting and Barbara B. Pesch. Vineyard Stories, Edgartown, Mass. 2007. 152 pages, photographs and illustration. $19.95, softcover.