Arts & Entertainment
West Tisbury’s Mill Pond was all white;
The snow on the cattails a pretty sight.
The mallards were swimming up and down.
Big Bike Ride for Cancer
Three Martha’s Vineyard residents raised $39,371 for cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute by riding up to 190 miles in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge this summer.
The efforts of Erik Blake of Oak Bluffs, Roch Hillenbrand of Edgartown, and Eric Berke of Aquinnah helped the challenge raise $33 million and bring the organization’s 31-year total Jimmy Fund contribution to $303 million.
Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, by Simon Winchester, HarperCollins Publishers, 496 pages, illustrated. $27.99.
It would be hard to live on the Vineyard and not have an interest in the Atlantic Ocean. So much of the Island has been colored and shaped by the sea. You can smell the ocean here and feel it all around you.
A new book, Atlantic, is a biography of the ocean. What is most striking about this long book is its scope.
Kwanzaa Celebration
Kwanzaa was started in 1966 by an African-American professor who wanted to give black Americans a unique way to celebrate their African roots, family life and community. This year the Martha’s Vineyard branch of the NAACP is hosting a Kwanzaa celebration at the Trinity United Methodist Parish Hall in the Oak Bluffs Campground on Wednesday, Dec. 29 from 4 to 6 p.m.
There will be music, food, games and activities for all ages.
Good Tidings of Great Joy
Tonight the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury takes the form of both a barn and a community center. The animals will not be, well, real animals, but rather small children performing the annual Christmas Eve pageant. There will be donkeys, cattle, sheep and of course shepherds, wisemen, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. The kids are members of the West Tisbury Congregational Church which each year creates this tableau for the community.
Family, Film, Feast
The second Family, Film, Feast installment of the season is just around the corner. On Saturday, Jan. 8 beginning at 5 p.m. the folks at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival will present another community gathering like no other.
It’s a casual get-together featuring local and delicious food and movies that are always entertaining, thought-provoking and suitable for all ages. The questions unspooling from the carseat on the ride home could be a movie in and of itself.
