Community
Donations to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services continued to stream in the day after the 33rd annual Possible Dreams auction, bringing the total raised by the popular fund-raising event to more than $400,000, organizers said this week.
“We feel wonderful,” said Julia Burgess, executive director of Community Services, who will retire by next year. “We are very grateful to the people who contributed and came to the auction.”
Music, poetry and sharks.
It’s not a frequent combination, but on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Martha’s Vineyard poet laureate Lee H. McCormack will read a poem at JawsFest to draw attention to the plight of sharks and to protect aquatic ecosystems. The anticipated audience exceeds 5,000 people, which would rank this event the most attended poetry reading in Island history.
Mr. McCormack will be joined by Wendy Benchley, widow of Jaws author Peter Benchley, who is president of the Board of Shark Savers.
In case Olympic Table Tennis has you in the mood to swing paddles at lightning speed, the Chappaquiddick Community Center is hosting the annual All-Island Chappy Ping Pong Tournament on Sunday, August 12.
The tournament is open to all ages and levels of competition. The round robin competition begins at 11 a.m. Registration opens at 10 a.m. and is free.
Winners will take home the Island equivalent of a gold medal — Morning Glory pies.
For more information, call 508-627-7902.
It all begins with the drum circle. At first it’s just a few folks sitting behind their drums, striking the beat ever so softly. But the scene is being set at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs and quickly it begins to build as the audience streams in, no need for money or tickets, not on this night.
Baa Baa for Red Cross
On August 21 the Black Sheep on North Summer street in Edgartown is hosting a fundraiser for the Red Cross of the Cape and Islands. What the Black Sheep does best is food and wine, (to stroll through the store is like taking an edible tour of France), and their goodies will be in great abundance.
The first pairing of the evening will be three cheeses along with three crisp white wines. The second pairing will be three charcuterie paired with three summer reds.
“I was a pest to a lot of people when I first came to the Vineyard in 1967,” confessed Mark Snider, owner and managing director of Mattakeset Properties in Katama since 1983, of the Winnetu Oceanside Resort at Katama since 2000 and now of the Nantucket Hotel and Resort that opened June 29 across Nantucket Sound.
“But, remember,” he added with a touch of pride, “that I was only 10 and there was so much I wanted to learn from people here who had history to share.”