Sports
The good news began in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, when 68 flapping fish were delivered to the Wampanoag Tribe’s hatchery in Aquinnah near the edge of Menemsha Pond. The adult winter flounder had just been caught earlier Tuesday by Greg Mayhew and his son, Todd, in the Menemsha fishing dragger Unicorn. The hatchery hopes to raise over 50,000 juvenile winter flounder this spring. Later in the year they’ll be released into Menemsha and Lagoon Ponds.
Spring sports are in full bloom at the regional high school, with the fields, courts and Lagoon Pond abuzz with preseason activity.
Girls’ Tennis
The Workout and Vineyard Tennis Center is hosting its annual Alexandra M. Gagnon’s seventh grade girls’ day event on Saturday, March 24, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The event is a gift to seventh grade girls in that it opens the club up to both pamper and educate. Girls can experience a day of cardio workouts, cooking, skin care and massage, all free of charge. The idea is to provide both a relaxing day and one that empowers girls to find ways to be healthy.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness will offer a series of 12 weekly classes, starting April 11, for families of people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses.
Classes will examine the symptoms of schizophrenia, bipolar disease, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety disorders, as well as offer coping skills, basic information about medications, listening and communication techniques, problem solving, recovery and rehabilitation and self-care.
With prescription drug abuse increasing on Martha’s Vineyard, some Islanders are calling for a new course of action: awareness about the problem.
“One of the things we have to address is the use of prescription drugs,” said Tom Bennett, senior clinical advisor with the Island Counseling Center at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services. “It will take a whole community effort to address this issue.”
The Martha’s Vineyard Travel Mites capped an already exciting season—including an appearance at TD Garden and a four-game tourney sweep at the Frank Bell Memorial Tournament—by bringing home the Cape and Islands league trophy, defeating Nantucket 3-2 on Saturday and Hetland 5-1 on Sunday.