News
Island Alpaca Farm’s third annual shearing day open house is this Saturday, April 24, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine. The farm, located at 1 Head of the Pond Road in Oak Bluffs, welcomes families to meet and learn about the alpaca, and watch as expert shearers clip the luxurious fleece, to be made into yarn (available for purchase at the farm) and give the animals a lightweight, warm weather haircut. More than 50 alpacas are scheduled for shearing and public viewing.
Dean’s List
The following students were named to the University of Massachusetts Boston dean’s list for the fall 2009 semester: Caitlin Crossland of Edgartown, Sophia Grimm of Oak Bluffs and Alicia Maciel of Vineyard Haven.
Wellfest, an afternoon of free health and healing workshops and sessions presented by the Martha’s Vineyard Whole Health Alliance, is on Saturday, May 1 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury. This free event features classes, demonstrations and workshops on movement, pilates, yoga, qigong, massage, reiki, acupuncture and more. Scheduled instruction includes a yoga class with Arlene Stark from 12:30 to 1:05 p.m., yoga therapy class with Jane Norton from 1:15 to 1:50 p.m., medical qigong with M.J.
Jessica Forend of Oak Bluffs is a member of the Johnson & Wales University dressage team, which has qualified for the International Dressage Association national championship to be held in Laurinburg, N.C. this weekend.
The university finished as reserve champion team for the year in the Northeast A Region, and also had five students qualify for individual competition — including Ms. Forend.
The Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Society may think it owns the Flying Horses. And of course we’re glad the living history group is under that impression. Who among us wants to start our day with, “Honey, the Wurlitzer is broken, can you spray it with WD-40 and bang the pipes?” But yes, we do individually own the 125-plus-year-old carousel. It nestles in our memories and is tucked into our hearts.
And now it’s spring again and the merry-go-round is open on weekends. Over Easter it cranked out its first ride and organ standard.
Fishermen from Martha’s Vineyard, Bar Harbor, Jonesport and Swan’s Island gathered last month for the inaugural meeting of members of the Northeast Coastal Communities Sector.
Over a 6 a.m. breakfast in Stonington, Me., the group elected a governing board and made plans for the opening of this year’s groundfishing season. This historic event heralds the possibility of landing sizeable amounts of groundfish in eastern Maine for the first time in almost 20 years.