News
Lighthouse Challenge
Here’s a challenge that in reality is more of a delight. It’s the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce fourth annual lighthouse challenge taking place Saturday, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The task is elementary but breathtaking. Visit all five lighthouses on the Island in one day. The list includes the lighthouse in Edgartown, East Chop, West Chop Lighthouses, Gay Head (Aquinnah) and Cape Pogue on Chappaquiddick, reachable only by an over-sand, four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Featherstone Kicks Off Poetry Season
Be prepared to get word drunk on Thursday at 7 p.m. when poets Dawn Lundy Martin and Ronaldo V. Wilson read at Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs. The event is the kickoff to the summer poetry series at Featherstone which later in the summer will feature champion wordsmiths Billy Collins, Robert Pinsky, Tina Chang and Naomi Shihab Nye.
Remembering Cee Jay Jones, the unofficial summer ambassador in Oak Bluffs, who died Oct. 9 at the age of 100 in Winston Salem, N.C.
The Vineyard Independence Partnership (VIP) invites members, friends and potential friends to two June events: On June 7 at 5 p.m., VIP will be hosting a walk at Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury, followed by a pizza supper. A $5 contribution to Polly Hill and RSVP are requested. The rain date will be June 8.
On Tuesday, June 28, Flatbread Pizza on Airport Road in Edgartown will donate a generous slice of the evening’s pizza sales to support VIP activities.
Fresh Air
This summer, share the beauty of your community and help an inner-city child enjoy new experiences such as swimming in a cool pond and catching fireflies. Join thousands who open their hearts and homes to New York city children from low-income communities through the Fresh Air Fund’s Volunteer Host Family program, now in its 135th summer.
The past year has been a difficult one for Jared Meader. Caught at the center of some of the most pressing national issues of the day, the two-time Iraq war veteran has had to refinance his Vineyard Haven house to pay off medical bills from a brain tumor, and he now struggles to hold onto a mortgage while battling the psychological scars of combat. All while raising four children. For most people the burden of such a harrowing biography would be too much to bear, but Mr. Meader has the support of a community rallying to his aid.