Community
The Hon. Marie Laurence JocelynLassegue, Haiti’s Minister of Women’s Affairs and Rights, will visit the Island from July 15 to 19 as the guest of the volunteers of Martha’s Vineyard Fish Farm for Haiti Project and PeaceQuilts, two Vineyard humanitarian organizations working to relieve poverty in Haiti. She will be accompanied by a small delegation, all here to support the Island to Island Solidarity initiative.
Best of the Vineyard
Martha’s Vineyard Magazine hosted its 2009 Best of the Vineyard awards party at Mediterranean Restaurant in Oak Bluffs last night.
Close to 1,500 readers of the magazine went online to vote this year, and awards were presented to winners in 75 categories, from Best Burger to Best Fishing Charter, and Best Taxi to Best Spa. Details about the winners appear in the July issue of the magazine, which was released at the party and will be in newsstands and stores later in the week.
The West Tisbury Congregational Church, on the corner of State Road and Music street, is hosting the 21st Annual Strawberry Festival this Saturday, June 27, from noon to 4 p.m.
Five-card drive? Or five-car draw? Either way you call it, Saturday’s Poker Run — where classic cars drive to five spots to get a playing card, and the best poker hand wins — is a great charity fundraiser, part of the annual Island Power Cruise. The poker run begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Wesley Hotel, but kids and their parents will be the local winners if they come to Al’s Package Store on Upper Main street in Edgartown — the second-card stop — any time between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Bread Sale
Vineyard Committee on Hunger’s annual Bread and Bake Sale will be held Saturday, June 20, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., as ever under the Linden Tree next to the Capawock Theatre on Main street, Vineyard Haven. Both bread and baked goods will be available for purchase.
The Vineyard Committee on Hunger has chosen to donated the money from this year’s bread sale directly to Huruma (Mercy), the home for children depicted in Len and Georgia Morris’ film Rescuing Emmanuel.
Island favorites Justen Ahren and John Maloney last night kicked off a summer festival of poetry at Featherstone Center for the Arts, presented in association with the West Tisbury Poet Laureate and the Martha’s Vineyard Writers’ Residency.
Billy Collins, Naomi Shihab Nye, Fanny Howe, Honor Moore and others are part of the festival program.
The next event is scheduled for Thursday, July 16, with Fan Ogilvie and Fanny Howe.