The statistics never look good, but one thing remains clear: miracles do happen at Vineyard House. Thursday evening marks the 13th annual water tasting to benefit the only sober house on the Island, where staff, board members and volunteers hope not only to raise money for the organization, but to send people home with a message of helping out their neighbors.

Interested in hearing more about wind turbines and noise? On Wednesday, July 28, there will be a work session on the issue to help the preparation of a Wind Energy Plan for Dukes County. The session is free to all and begins at 5 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (the Stone Building) at 33 New York avenue in Oak Bluffs.

Michael Chertoff, former United States Secretary of Homeland Security, will speak on security in the 21st century in the season’s fourth program of the Summer Institute speaker series, on Thursday, July 29, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.

As a Secretary in the Cabinet of President Bush, Mr. Chertoff led a 218,000-person department with a budget of $50 billion. He also served periodically on the National Security and Homeland Security Councils, and on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Gone are the grownup gatekeepers of movie merit — kids are the audience for the weekly Cinema Circus films. So the Gazette and the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival bring you the big view from the smaller viewers with weekly kid critics.

In the second of its four grant cycles in 2010, the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank Charitable Fund awarded grants totaling $8,000 to seven Island nonprofits.

Those organizations that received grants in June include the Aquinnah Cultural Center, Camp Jabberwocky, Friends of Family Planning of Martha’s Vineyard, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society, Martha’s Vineyard Film Society, Martha’s Vineyard Museum and Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation.