The Halloween scarecrows that decorated many business storefronts for the past two weeks have been rounded up and moved to a central location. The handcrafted pieces, created for the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School’s 12th annual Islandwide Scarecrow Festival, will be displayed on the porch of the Mansion House through Tuesday, Nov. 6. Each of this year’s scarecrows bears a literary theme, such as the above Grapes of Wrath design.

Development Director

Christine Todd has been named development director for the Martha’s Vineyard Arena, leaders at the venerable ice rink announced. A resident of Oak Bluffs with a long background in marketing, fund-raising and development, Ms. Todd most recently helped the YMCA raise the money it needed to open its doors in 2010.

Wooden Whaleship Restored

Shipwrights have installed the last plank in the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaleship of the 19th century housed in Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. The wooden ship that began its 80-year career hunting whales with an Edgartown whaling captain, Thomas A. Norton, and many Vineyard crewmembers, is undergoing a $5 million restoration.

Last Friday afternoon shipwrights installed the shutter plank on the 106-foot vessel, which is expected to sail again in 2014.

Before probing the outer reaches of our galaxy, alien hunters would be well-advised to turn their telescopes around, training them on Earth’s own cephalopods instead. The group of animals includes squid, octopus, cuttlefish and nautiluses and were seemingly jury-rigged by evolution, armed with suction cups, beaks, ink, jet propulsion, camouflage and an intelligence entirely unlike our own.

Scavenger Hunt Winner

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission has announced the winner of its 25th Anniversary Photography Scavenger Hunt, a summer-long quest in which participants searched for designated points of interest in at least 15 land bank properties.

The Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard awarded $27,550 in grants to 12 Island organizations this fall. The grants will help support the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Martha’s Vineyard, Island Grown Initiative, Island Housing Trust Corporation, Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Sail Martha’s Vineyard, Vineyard Bellydance and Revue, Vineyard House, Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and the Yard.