The Martha’s Vineyard Freemasons are providing free errand service for Island senior citizens.

Island musician Andy Herr is teaching free guitar and ukulele classes online in April, sponsored by the West Tisbury Library.

Just for starters, it was the gloomiest birthday weather in memory — the memory being suspect, given the milestone nature of the event.

The disappearance over the past decade of daily and weekly newspapers has turned many areas of the United States into news deserts.

Asa Baer is Grey Barn’s livestock manager.

While many other job sites on the Island are shutting down, Mr. Baer and his four co-workers continue to care for about 90 cows, 60 pigs, 40 lambs, a flock of chickens, calves and a couple of cats.

With social distancing taking precedent, Mr. Baer is scheduling his crew so their shifts don’t overlap. It’s a big change at Grey Barn where the staff is used to working together.

“But cows always have to be milked, so it’s not really all that different,” Mr. Baer said.

Andrew Berry is a captain of the Chappy Ferry.

Four years ago he retired from his possition as assistant principal at the regional high school.

“The ferry is like water or electricity,” he said. “It’s an essential service for people that live on Chappy. You have to get everything from groceries to emergency vehicles over there. It’s essential we keep it running.”

A Coast Guard helicopter departing from the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Sunday morning was conducting general training exercises, a spokesman from station sector Southeastern New England confirmed.

Here are some more good reads from the Vineyard Gazette and Martha’s Vineyard Magazine archives. Consider it a time out from the news of the day.

A new group called Thank You Workers at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is gaining hundreds of members on the Facebook social network.

According to mental health professionals, a useful coping mechanism in these difficult times is to look for the positives and to write them down.