This month scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will descend on Edgartown with a sonar-equipped waverunner to map, in unprecedented resolution, the ever-shifting sands and currents of Katama Bay. While the bathymetry of the body of water, where change is a constant feature, is of special scientific interest to the Woods Hole scientists, the information is even more valuable for the surprising underwriter of the project: the U.S. Department of Defense.

Some children want to grow up to be ballerinas or astronauts, maybe a firefighter or a zookeeper, but then life takes a different path and the dream floats away. There’s one night of the year when the young at heart are celebrated and an important Vineyard institution benefits, a night when dreams are no longer deferred.

That night is Monday evening, when Martha’s Vineyard Community services hosts the 33rd annual Possible Dreams Auction.

A state government plan to open waters close to the south shore of Martha’s Vineyard to industrial-scale wind power generation now appears unlikely to proceed, following the release of a draft wind energy plan by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

If there is one statistic that attests to the way in which Martha’s Vineyard Community Services has become crucial to the to the well-being of Islanders, it is the one board president Wiet Bacheller now recites.

Some 6,000 people — a number equal to about one-third of the resident population — come into contact with Community Services each year.

Fifty years ago, when the organization first started its helping work, the year-round population of the Vineyard was less than that.