Midlife Is Not a Crisis

Are you a person beyond mid-life who has been wondering how to make the most of the rest of your life? Join a new discussion group which meets at the West Tisbury library on the first and third Wednesdays of each month from 8 to 9:30 a.m.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Massachusetts is sponsoring a free family-to-family educational course in Oak Bluffs for family members of individuals with a serious mental illness. The course has been given nationwide to over 100,000 family members since its inception. It is taught by two trained family member volunteers and is intended to help family caregivers cope with a close relative’s mental illness.

Teachers and parents from across Massachusetts took part in the Rising Stars of Massachusetts celebration, an annual event sponsored by the Early Education for All campaign to highlight the positive impact high-quality early education has on young children and families. But the real starring role was played by pre-kindergarteners from Martha’s Vineyard Community Services Early Childhood Program.

Hypnosis Classes

Need help with your New Year’s resolutions? There are new group hypnosis classes with Cynthia da Silva, certified hypnotherapist, beginning Jan. 19. A four-session series, the class is designed to help you lose weight and change your eating habits. Classes will be offered in various locations and class size is limited. For details, call 508-524-9022.

A wide range of Island leaders — including selectmen, public health officials and police chiefs — gathered on Wednesday for a special meeting hoping to finally designate an emergency dispensing site for the Vineyard in the event of a terrorist attack or outbreak of infectious disease.

And although the meeting, held at the Vineyard Transit Authority building, was marked by a spirit of cooperation and good will, no consensus about a site was reached.

If your New Year’s resolution is to quit smoking, Jay Schofield has an offer to help you do it.

For free.

Mr. Schofield, a West Tisbury resident and retired high school teacher and coach, has been hosting smoking cessation classes since 1974. He has helped over 1,000 Islanders quit smoking.

And as 2009 begins, he has decided he would like to give something back.

“I just think everybody is hurting. People don’t have money. So I am doing this as a good will thing,” he said.