Boxing Day Yoga

Mollie Doyle and Sian Williams Bassett are joining together to celebrate the British tradition of Boxing Day, offering a free yoga class on Sunday, Dec. 26 to benefit the MV Community Services Thrift Shop. Bring your unwanted Christmas gifts or a small donation and they’ll pass them along to the thrift shop.

The class is from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at The Yoga Collective at Island Cohousing, 11 Rock Pond Road, West Tisbury.

All levels are welcome and wanted.

In the weeks since the Martha’s Vineyard Commission passed temporary wind turbine regulations requiring any machine over 150 feet to come before the commission for review, two building permits in Chilmark have been approved for turbines that fall just inches short of the new requirement.

In the coming months the owners of the Allen Farm on South Road plan to build a turbine that is 149 and a half feet tall.

Town employees may soon be feeling the effects of the economic downturn as Oak Bluffs continues to wrestle with stark financial projections.

Inherent dignity, equal and inalienable rights, freedom, justice and peace in the world. Whichever religious traditions we may or may not have grown up with, we are taught that these morals are the highest to live by.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights resonates in many forms of religious traditions without mentioning any higher being in its text, and this was cause for celebration last Friday night of the 62nd anniversary of its signing at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.

With West Tisbury footing the majority of the bill, the up-Island Regional School District committee voted on Monday night to certify an $8.35 million budget for next year, a 2.1 per cent increase over last year.

Discussion centered on the possibility of a new kindergarten-first grade class at the Chilmark School and the resulting 4.53 per cent increase in West Tisbury’s $5.8 million assessment compared with a decrease in assessments for Aquinnah and Chilmark. Even without the additional class, West Tisbury’s assessment would still be up 3.99 per cent.

Emily Bramhall, a longtime business owner on Main street in Vineyard Haven, and for an equal number of years a hardworking volunteer with a number of Island nonprofits, is this year’s recipient of the Spirit of the Vineyard Award, given annually by Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard.

A quiet announcement about a key staff change at the top and a large deficit marked the holiday newsletter that went out this week from the Yard, the Chilmark summer performing arts colony founded by the late Patricia Nanon.

Food Pantry Donation

Armen Hanjian of the Island Food Pantry received a generous donation of nourishing food from the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon). It was picked up at the Bishop’s Storehouse in Worcester, delivered Saturday evening to the food pantry by Jim Powell and Donna Maurice.

Helpers unloading the truck included students from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, Kyle Altieri, Zach Lamni, Corey Perotta, Dylan Rice and Kevin Walsh, as well as Ray Bilodeau, Brent Brown and Elders Gallegos and Morales.

Teen Volleyball

Serve, set, spike: the Martha’s Vineyard Boys’ and Girl’s Club will kick off its teen volleyball league, open to all players from grades eight to twelve, in January.

There will be separate boys’ and girls’ leagues; a coed league will be formed if numbers are not large enough for two separate leagues.

Registration is Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club next to the Edgartown School. The fee is $75.

Christmas Decorations

With an Ulterior Motive