Program for Girls

Adolescent Balance Living Experience (ABLE), offered through the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard for girls ages 11 to 14, is seeking referrals for the winter session which begins Monday, Jan. 14.

This group is free of charge and meets twice a week for eight weeks.

ABLE focuses on healthy nutrition and exercise, as well as how to stand up to bullies and be a good friend. Please call Amanda Cohen at 508-696-7171, extension 4, to register participant.

Lifeguard training again is being offered at the Mansion House Health Club in Vineyard Haven.

Mansion House is pleased to donate pool time and classroom space to support the training as certified by the Martha’s Vineyard Red Cross.

This course is designed to provide competent swimmers with the knowledge and certification necessary to become a lifeguard. Many of the Island towns’ lifeguards were trained in the Mansion House pool.

Dukes County has received a grant for $55,000 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services to conduct outreach and enrollment services for the state’s affordable insurance programs.

The programs are MassHealth and Commonwealth Care and, for people with higher incomes, Commonwealth Choice.

Deadline Looms for

Island Health Insurance

Saturday, Dec. 15 is the last day that Islanders can sign up for health insurance with Vineyard Health Care Access Program and get accepted by Jan. 1.

Massachusetts residents will lose their personal deduction on their state income tax if they cannot prove they have health insurance by that date.

The program, which began in 1999, helps Islanders who need access to affordable plans and related health-care resources. More information is available by calling 508-696-0020.

They are symptoms most of us have experienced. Fatigue? We chalk it up to skimping on sleep. We forget where we put our car keys and call it a sign of age. Anxiety — one too many things on the to-do list. Hardly ever do we stop and think these symptoms all have one cause. Rarely do we think they are signs of sickness.

Island Ambulance Services

Seek New Volunteer EMTs

Vineyard ambulance squads once again are appealing to Island residents to become a volunteer emergency medical technicians.

Jeff Pratt, president of the Martha’s Vineyard Association of EMTs and Tisbury ambulance coordinator, says that new emergency medical technicians are needed every year. Classes start in January and go through April. Participants can become an Island emergency medical technician by June.