A conversation Thursday about homelessness on Martha’s Vineyard shed light on the gravity of the Island’s housing shortage, and introduced a new initiative by Island churches set to begin next winter to provide emergency housing for those without a home.

Every summer they come together not just to form a team and play baseball, but also to form a family. And a functional one at that. The Sharks opened their season with a string of victories, and are currently in second place in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

Walk The Moon was the big name at the fifth annual Stars and Stripes festival held on Friday night at Flatbread, but two local kids proved they were ready for the limelight too. Leah Hairston and Robert Hanjian opened the sold-out show to benefit the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard.

On no other summer afternoon would there be so many empty parking spaces in downtown Edgartown, But the Fourth of July parade was about to begin and crowds gathered on porches and lined sidewalks to celebrate.

Two men were uninjured after the Jeep they were traveling in caught fire near the Big Bridge on Beach Road Friday afternoon. The Oak Bluffs fire department said their response was delayed because traffic did not yield to the emergency vehicles but they quickly extinguished the fire once they arrived.