I am a resident of Connecticut with some 80 years of experience and knowledge of Chilmark Pond. My family built a summer home overlooking the pond and have owned a beach lot since 1934.

Thanks to the late Dorothy Bangs for her decades of enthusiasm, organization and efforts toward raising money through selling bunches of daffodils to help ease the pain of a cancer diagnosis.

I am Marvin Rosencrantz and I have an Alzheimer’s story to tell. It is also a story about what the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living Supportive Day Program has done and continues to do to support my family.

The white haired trumpet player standing in the doorway blasts for all the heavens to hear. He is perfectly in sync with his superb band of fellow players, volunteer artists one and all, crowded in front of the picture window at Offshore Ale.

My first lessons concerning the true spirit of Martha’s Vineyard came from my father who settled here in the early 1900s.

This letter is an appeal to every Islander who cares about the future of our elder population. Every day, the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living Supportive Day Program provides support to the frailest members of our community; support that can’t be found anywhere else.