The 42nd Creative Living Award was designated Thursday to two Island leaders that uplift the community from the pulpit and the printed page.

Each year the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation awards an Island resident whose passions help foster a more connected community. This year the award acknowledged Cathlin Baker, the 50th minister of the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury and her husband Bill Eville, editor of the Vineyard Gazette.

“Together, they remind us that community is not something that just exists. It’s something we build, word by word, deed by deed, and week by week,” said Paul Schulz, executive director of the foundation.

The couple moved to the Island in 2008 with their two young children, Hardy and Eirene (Pickle), when Ms. Baker became the first woman to lead the West Tisbury church. 

Paul Karasik regales the crowd with tales of Ms. Baker and Mr. Eville.

Ray Ewing

Paul Karasik regales the crowd with tales of Ms. Baker and Mr. Eville.

Ray Ewing

But the family’s roots have been planted in Vineyard soil since the 1700s when Mr. Eville’s ancestors arrived on its shores to take part in the whaling industry. When it faltered, his family later became shopkeepers on Circuit avenue until his great grandfather made the decision to leave.

“He left the Island, he abandoned this place... so I had to grow-up a mere summer kid,” Mr. Eville said. “But then moving here and deciding to raise our children here, it really felt like an important narrative arc.”

At the ceremony, friends shared their favorite moments with the couple and gave speeches highlighting their ability to positively shape the Island’s narrative through their work.

Paul Karasik, a cartoonist for the New Yorker and the Vineyard Gazette, as well as a member of the West Tisbury church’s congregation, hosted the couple for their first Thanksgiving on the Island. 

“When we are with Bill and Cathlin, we are reminded that gratitude is what keeps us human,” Mr. Karasik said. “Both Bill and Cathlin in their own ways, in their own fields, sow the seeds of gratitude.”

Mr. Karasik recited a recent prayer Ms. Baker wrote. 

Ms. Baker and Mr. Eville share a laugh along with Mr. Eville's parents.

Ray Ewing

Ms. Baker and Mr. Eville share a laugh along with Mr. Eville's parents.

Ray Ewing

“You are infinitely more valuable than our culture teaches,” Mr. Karasik recited. “This very moment, you can experience some of that value by pausing to imagine something that stirs – a sense of gratitude, beauty or love.”

When Julia Wells, former editor of the Vineyard Gazette, took to the microphone, she shared the story of how Mr. Eville came to work for the paper. She was only a reporter at the time when he would submit occasional essays.

“They were lovely essays: a little moody, a little wistful and unmistakably Vineyard,” Ms. Wells said. “I remember each time I read one, I not only learned something about the person who was writing the essay, but I also felt I learned a little something about myself.”

In 2010, Mr. Eville applied for a job at the Gazette as its community calendar editor. He admitted he had no experience but ended his cover letter by summarizing his passion: “For me, writing is like breathing.”

“Bill’s journey that followed has been a remarkable and steady rise, from essayist to editor, from writer to mentor and teacher of young reporters,” Ms. Wells said. 

She then turned to Ms. Baker and described how her activism has helped protect and build a stronger community, most recently through her advocacy for people who are unhoused on the Island.

“Probably the only thing I admire more than Bill’s writing is Cathlin’s heart,” Ms. Wells said. “Her strength as a pastor and her unwavering leadership in the name of social justice are just a few of the reasons she’s so widely respected on the Island.”

Sydney Mullen, the council chair of the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury, recalled the first time she heard Ms. Baker preach.

“It was a zing to heart,” Ms. Mullen said. “ A message of affirmation that said, I see you. You are not alone. You are a beloved child of God created in his image, and you are enough.”

Cathlin Baker and MJ Bruder Munafo.

Ray Ewing

Cathlin Baker and MJ Bruder Munafo.

Ray Ewing

She said Ms. Baker’s role on the Island goes beyond the pulpit. It stretches to the side of hospital beds, funeral services, weddings and community groups such as the church’s meals program and the all-Island Clergy Association. 

Noah Asimow, former intern, reporter and news editor for the Vineyard Gazette, spoke to the couple’s influence. 

“As Bill managed news of migrants arriving unannounced on the Island, it was Cathlin who was on the front line with their children, mobilizing an ad hoc support network that welcomed more than 40 people into churches, homes and businesses,” he said. “This shared professional voice - Bill the poetry, Cathlin providing the urgency, [and] both of them providing the empathy, is why they’re winning this award together.”

Mr. Asimow came to the Vineyard in May of 2018, and like many cub reporters, knew nothing about the shores that would soon be his home. He said Bill embraced his writing with the care of a father and when he was lacking inspiration, only had to meander two desks down for Mr. Eville to help him find his voice. 

“What other local newspaper in the country, if not the world - and I mean this seriously - has an editor who can write so eloquently about taking his daughter to a Taylor Swift concert where he got hit on by a gaggle of Canadian 30-somethings,” Mr. Asimow joked.  

At the end of the ceremony, both Mr. Eville and Ms. Baker shared their gratitude for the friends and family who have supported their work. 

“To be honored for the way we have chosen to live here, the way we have chosen to be so public about our love for this Island and telling its story, both in words and deeds, it really is such an incredible affirmation,” Mr. Eville said. 

He ended with a reading of The Notebook, a weekly essay that was emailed to readers each week for 10 years. Though the column ended soon after Mr. Eville became editor, he wrote a special edition for the ceremony. 

It described a recent trip off-Island to tour colleges with his daughter, who is a senior at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. 

Ms. Baker thanked her family for working as a team to juggle the weekly routine of Thursday deadlines and Sunday services. 

She said she views herself as more of a community organizer than a preacher, and through the award recognized that her work is rooted in creativity. She then shared where she finds inspiration.

“It looks like this – getting down close to the land, the water, it’s creatures and people, letting the stories of the land and different and diverse Island people and communities speak,” Ms. Baker said.