Ask most kids where their eggs, beef and milk come from and they'll tell you the grocery store. Ask the same question of the young people who have spent a week at Herring Creek Farm and they'll answer differently: "It comes from a farm."

Cheers for Circus Smirkus: Wild West Performances Draw Big Island Crowds

By MARCUS TONTI

The big top, a blue-and-white-striped number festooned with green and yellow stars, beckoned to passersby from Old County Road. The smell of popcorn and cotton candy filled the air as one approached the tent, the sight of children already sticky with lemonade and sno-cones lightening the heart.

But all this was prelude. It was the show inside that really soared.

Developer Threatens MVC Ruin in Campaign to Force Golf Deal

By JULIA WELLS

Gazette Senior Writer

The developer who wants to build a luxury golf course and an array of private homes in the southern woodlands section of Oak Bluffs threatened to "bring down" the Martha's Vineyard Commission last week if the commission refuses to sign on to a back-room deal to approve the lucrative development scheme, the Gazette has learned.

Hospital Picks Chief Executive Officer to Secure Future of Medical Complex; Announces Plan to Build New Facility

By JOSHUA SABATINI

A new era promising a brighter future in the wake of yearly fiscal woes has dawned at Martha's Vineyard Hospital, as the hospital's board of trustees last week approved a new chief executive officer and a plan for a possible $30 million project to construct a new hospital facility.

It's auction season here on the Island. Benefits are by now part of the summer routine - held, it seems, on a weekly basis - raising money for causes that range from youth sailing programs to conservation and affordable housing. But the predecessor of them all still has yet to make its annual appeal. That will come Monday, August 5, with the 24th annual Possible Dreams Auction, held in the garden of the Harborside Inn in Edgartown.

Houses on Move Auction Raises $160,000

Islanders Press Drive to Ease Affordable Housing Crisis

By MANDY LOCKE

The scene was Vineyard ironic - hundreds of people gathering at the agricultural hall to shuffle "houses" for the sake of ending the Island's dreaded summer shuffle tradition.

On Saturday night, the handiwork of well over 100 Vineyarders who hammered, painted and molded everything from owl houses to lighthouses, playhouses to doghouses, brought in more than $160,000 at auction.