The weather was perfect, the view was spectacular and the food was amazing as we welcomed a sell-out crowd to our seventh annual Meals in the Meadow last month at the Farm Institute. I want to thank our incredibly dedicated and talented staff for all of their hard work and a job very well done, our generous board of directors for their leadership, our executive director, Jon Previant, for his ongoing encouragement and Sam Feldman for continuing to believe in our mission and for helping us

I am a member of the board of directors of Vineyard House, which is the only residential support facility for Islanders in early recovery from substance abuse. I am also an active volunteer on our resident support committee. As such, I meet every other week with eight other volunteers to help support the house managers who oversee our program.

We are seasonal residents of Aquinnah. Our home sits on a rise overlooking Vineyard Sound and the Elizabeth Islands. We have always been curious about what goes on over there. Thank you for the wonderful piece by Will Monast which so beautifully described a slice of life of our neighbors across the Sound, so near but yet so far.

I’m outraged by David Handlin’s letter which was published in the Gazette on August 10. Instead of thoughtfully engaging in the actual debate, his letter seems designed to stir the pot. The movement to update the zoning laws is not about style. It’s about size, stewardship and preserving the character of our community.

I found architect David Handlin’s letter published on August 10 in defense of building enormous homes on the Vineyard specious on many fronts. Nowhere does he confront the issues which I have seen raised at town meetings and in letters over the year — consideration of our neighbors, maintaining the aesthetic of a community we love, and supporting a collective need to protect nature.

I had a good laugh reading David Handlin’s op-ed about his controversial trophy home on Quitsa Pond, my old home. Evidently we are now to compare those who build trophy homes on the Island to the Pilgrims, to Ben Franklin and George Washington, those who escaped political and religious persecution to found this great country.