The Nature Conservancy is seeking volunteers for a seed-cleaning project. All are welcome to join the conservancy’s Massachusetts Islands Program staff and intern with separating and sorting seeds from the native plant nursery. Seeds harvested throughout the season and stored in the Hoft Farm field station need the final step of cleaning by being taken out of their pods or scraped off their stems in order to be ready for eventual propagation.

Oak Bluffs School principal Laury Binney will be showing a short film and speaking about his recent travels to Brazil on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. It is free and open to all.

Mr. Binney, who took an unpaid sabbatical last year, and his wife Marcy, a reading teacher, spent six months visiting elementary schools in Brazil in an effort to gain insights into addressing the needs of Brazilian-born students on the Vineyard. The talk takes place at the Oak Bluffs School.

Visited by increasing numbers of migrating birds and marine mammals, both rare and common, Noman’s Land is increasing in value as a wildlife refuge.

Jeffrey Alley, 55, of Oak Bluffs was sentenced to between two and a half to three years in state prison last week in Dukes County Superior Court after pleading guilty to distribution of illegal prescription drugs, court records indicate.

Mr. Alley, who has an extensive criminal record on the Island, will serve his sentence at the Massachusetts Correctional Facility at Cedar Junction (Walpole).

The organizers of the surplus food program, now called Helping Hands, begin distributions today, continuing monthly through April, 2009.

Future dates, all Fridays, are: Nov. 14, Dec. 12, Jan. 16, Feb, 13, March 13, and April 10.

All distributions will take place at 2 p.m. at the First Baptist Church Parish House in Vineyard Haven. The parish house is the small building on William street right next to the church. Food will be distributed until we run out.