Creative Living Award Goes to the Dunkls

<p>Chilmark siblings Frank, Heidi and Peter Dunkl will receive this year&rsquo;s Creative Living Award, the Permanent Endowment for Martha&rsquo;s Vineyard has announced.</p>

Chilmark siblings Frank, Heidi and Peter Dunkl will receive this year’s Creative Living Award, the Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard has announced.

Self-taught craftsmen, antique restorationists, engineers, water quality experts and musicians — to name just a few — the Dunkls are widely known in the Island community and a Vineyard institution in their own right. They have been full-time residents of Chilmark since 1971.

“We can put in a well, design and install a septic system. We can shingle your roof. We can custom make a window frame or a sash for you. We can design, build, and hang a door. Anything you want, we can do it,” Frank Dunkl said in a 2009 interview with the Martha’s Vineyard Magazine.

“Small of stature but oversized in intelligence and determination, the Dunkls opted for self-schooling over higher education after high school in New Rochelle, N.Y. They used libraries and first-hand observation to feed their curiosity, developing a broad portfolio of skills in the process,” a press release from Permanent Endowment said.

The Dunkls founded and operated the Chilmark Spring Water company for many years, bottling water they tapped from a virgin spring on their own property near the banks of the Mill Brook. They closed the company in 2013. The same year, the nonprofit Island Grown Initiative bought their property in order to protect the pristine groundwater in perpetuity, allowing the Dunkls to continue to live there in the house they built themselves.

Frank and Peter Dunkl play the French horn in the Vineyard Classic Brass. Heidi Dunkl manages a large vegetable garden. All three are vegetarians.

A celebration and formal presentation of the award will take place on Nov. 28 at the Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs.

The Creative Living Award was established in 1983 in memory of Ruth Bogan who loved the Vineyard and was herself a Renaissance woman and Jill of all trades.

The award includes an honorarium and is given out every year in the fall by Permanent Endowment, a charitable community fund that gives grants to public and private nonprofits and provides a wide array of scholarships for Island students.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/13/2017 - 16:32

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Robert Skydell Chilmark

An incredibly well-deserved award for my long-time friends and neighbors, the Dunkls. Their combined skills(some quite arcane)have amazed me over the years and of course you can always count on a few wonderful stories that get thrown in along the way as the work gets done as an added bonus.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/13/2017 - 16:37

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Dana Nunes VH

Three warm, outstanding people, who live refreshingly outside of the box. Well deserved.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/13/2017 - 20:42

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Kevin Oliver chilmark

There will never be a better choice for this award. The Dunkls are an island treasure. Thank God for people like them!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/14/2017 - 00:45

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Chris West Tisbury

This couldn't happen to 3 more deserving people. Congratulations! Keep-up the good work!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/14/2017 - 06:13

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David Wilson Oak Bluffs

Congratulations to Heidi, Frank and Peter. Anyone who has ever known or worked with the Dunkls knows how deserved this award is.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/14/2017 - 06:30

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Marina Vineyard Haven

The Dunkls are some of my favorite people on this island: yes of course this award: they are defined by the words "creative living". I enjoy every encounter with these great people! when they visit my office in Town Hall, people come running to see if we are brawling, because we get so excited by what we are talking about that the volume and pace of the conversation gets turned way up!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/14/2017 - 08:31

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Robert Sterrett Rochester, NY

Every once in a while an award goes to the exactly right people. This is that time. Heidi, Peter, and Frank are the perfect recipients. I can't imagine a more deserving honor. Their warmth and integrity also make them special.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 09/14/2017 - 09:47

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Margaret Maida Chilmark

Congratulations to the Dunkls. If anyone deserves this award it is Heidi,Peter and Frank. Your family that is no longer with us would be so so proud of you. You live by example.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 09/15/2017 - 06:21

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Irene Ziebarth Oak Bluffs

Congratulations to our long time acquaintances through the Vineyard Haven Band and their water company. Lucky us to be their new neighbors in the fall.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 09/15/2017 - 07:40

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Anne Ganz Chilmark

Congratulations to Heidi, Peter and Frank.
Indeed, YOU are Creative Living, and there
is nothing you haven't helped with.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/24/2017 - 11:10

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Jimmy Burgoff Pelham, MA

"When you drive down our driveway, go slow, because the ducks can't fly!"
(Frank Dunkl - approximately 1990)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 12/02/2017 - 10:24

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Mary Ann (Ferriera) White Middletown, Rhode Island

On a early, cold and icy January morning, (in the late 1970s) I was driving to work (Up-Island Super Market) when my car skidded on the bad curve at the W.Tisbury Cemetery. It went over an embankment and into the fence of the cemetery. I was unable to move the vehicle because the undercarriage was hanging over the embankment. Just about that time the Dunkls came by in their VW van. They actually lifted my car and got it back on the road. I'll never forget these wonderful people, their generosity and kindness to all. The Vineyard should be so proud to have folks of this caliber as part of their community. Kudos to the Dunkls!

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