The damage estimates are in and the price tag for repairing the West Dock in Menemsha following the July 12 fire may exceed $1 million. And as they struggle to figure out how the town is going to pay for it all, the visibly harried Chilmark selectmen this week voiced their disappointment in the Coast Guard for its slow response on cleanup efforts following the fire.

Once there was a giant named Moshup who created the Island of Martha’s Vineyard to escape violent war and fighting on the mainland. Isolated on the tiny bit of land surrounded by sea, he one day became homesick, and set out to build a bridge back to the mainland. He waded out into the Vineyard Sound and threw down a trail of giant boulders to step across. But in the middle of his effort, Moshup was bitten on the toe by a crab, and returned home to nurse his wounds. He never resumed his project, and his bridge remains unfinished.

In the middle of March, lifelong Chilmarker Mike Holtham was pulling out from his winter home on Quansoo when a group of fire trucks sped by, sirens blaring. Curious, he made a split-second decision to follow the trucks, which were headed to a fire on a road nearby.

“I know every person that lives on that street right now,” he remembered thinking as he approached the scene. “Now there’s no excuse,” he thought.

The next day, Mr. Holtham walked into the Chilmark fire station and signed up to be a volunteer firefighter.

Twelve years ago, Marsha Winsyrg staged a small-scale effort to help a small group of Zambian artisans make a profit from their work. While in Africa visiting her daughter, Ms. Winsyrg saw the effects of poverty and AIDS “wrecking the fabric of the whole culture.” Upon her return to the States, she hauled back the handmade crafts to sell on the Island. The proceeds would go back to the struggling artisans.