Last month we invited folks who support Danny at school and in the community to what we called a “vision party.” We invited them but we really didn’t expect them to show up.

In 1992 a group of parents and teachers collaborated on a new academic program for the Chilmark School. It sprang from the belief that children and adults can learn together outside the classroom.

On a recent Sunday evening, the West Tisbury Library Community Room was crowded with people leaning over tables covered with white paper bowls. Each bowl was filled with a different kind of seed — some tiny, some huge, some fuzzy, some smooth, and in every shade of red, gray, white, black and brown.

Chilmark has its scenic moors, West Tisbury its tree-shaded Middle Road. Edgartown has Chappaquiddick’s North Neck, Tisbury has the headland at the West Chop light and Aquinnah has the Gay Head cliffs (even if rain and sea have washed away the colorful clay that gave them their name). What a pity it would have been if the most scenic natural attraction in Oak Bluffs had simply been allowed to crumble and wash away.