Community
The Martha’s Vineyard Youth Task Force will be able to continue promoting a healthy Island, thanks to a recent grant from the federal Drug Free Communities programs.
Totaling $625,000, to be distributed over a five-year period, the grant enables the Youth Task Force to continue its substance abuse prevention work, co-coordinator Theresa Manning said on Monday. The Youth Task Force was established in 2004 by the Dukes County Health Council after statistics showed substance use among Vineyard youths to be higher on average than state levels.
Patients with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and renal dialysis all fall under Cheryl Kram’s purview. She’s not their doctor — and she reminds them that she is not their mother — but Ms. Kram is certainly their advocate.
Ms. Kram is the high-risk care manager for Martha’s Vineyard Hospital’s new integrated care management program. The world of medically complex ailments can be overwhelming and foreign, Ms. Kram said in an interview this week, but knowledge is power.
Sheldon Hackney, a noted historian, humanitarian and longtime Vineyard resident, died Thursday, Sept. 12, at home, surrounded by his family. He was 79. The cause was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Mr. Hackney was a well-known figure on and off the Vineyard. Born in Alabama, he was a professor of Southern history who became president of Tulane University and later the University of Pennsylvania and served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities during the Clinton administration.
Greta is a great dog. That is the consensus of the staff and volunteers at the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard. She is a medium-sized bundle of love with a grizzled but soft coat, a tail that starts thumping when you speak to her, and big brown eyes. Her intelligence shows in her expression and in her eagerness to please She is crazy about people, including the small ones, is indifferent to cats, and would prefer to be the only dog in the household.
Last Tuesday Gerald Fritz’s day started off a lot like every other. Around half past 10 he embarked on a leisurely stroll from his four-bedroom parsonage on South Water street and crossed town to the Espresso Love coffee shop.
Before he’d rounded the corner by the courthouse, he spotted a young acquaintance. “’S’up, Jerry?” the man greeted him. “How you behaving?” Jerry asked. They high-fived and continued on in opposite directions.
An outreach and education manager in human services has been named director of Martha’s Vineyard Family Planning, the organization announced on Tuesday.
Brenda Grandizio most recently worked as a program instructor counseling young parents at Chester County Intermediate Unit, an educational agency which provides direct services to school districts outside of Philadelphia, Pa.