Sunday is Father’s Day, and chances are you will be taking Dad out to dinner (after all, didn’t you take Mom out on Mother’s Day?)

To that end, the backers of the inaugural Martha’s Vineyard Restaurant Week hope they are onto something, because Sunday is the kickoff night for a weeklong event designed to attract hungry diners with interesting menus at reasonable prices.

The class of 2009 shared the Oak Bluffs Tabernacle with another special group of graduates at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High school graduation ceremony Sunday. In honor of the 50th graduating class, the high school invited members of the first representatives from the class of 1960—to join in the ceremony. The former students led the class procession through the crowd of spectators that filled the Tabernacle and spilled out onto the surrounding lawn on a sunny afternoon.

They’ve left no time to worry about the future. Instead, they have directed their energy toward preparing for it.

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High school Class of 2009 has not been coddled into believing that the journey ahead will be easy. It is difficult to maintain raw optimism in the face of a crippling recession and a staggering job market.

It seems appropriate, somehow, that the first reward Bethany Pennington received upon hearing that she was the valedictorian of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School class of 2009 was extra homework.

“The principal called me into his office and said, ‘You’re the valedictorian. You have to make a speech at graduation and it’s due in three weeks,’” she said, laughing, in an interview at her father’s office yesterday.

The walk to Great Rock Bight from the nearest parking area takes 15 or 20 minutes. This year, that extra mile or so could have been considered the true beginning of the annual Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank cross-Island hike. Best to have factored it into your plans, if you intended to meet up with the group of hikers before they set off on their 21-mile trek through the early-summer wilds of the Vineyard.