Dozens of people gathered at Ocean Park Saturday afternoon for the annual Della Hardman day celebration, which honors the tireless volunteer, artist, and longtime educator.

A large white cake sat on a table toward the back of the tent on Saturday afternoon in Ocean Park. On it was a picture of a hand holding a rose, with the words “A flower for Della.” The picture was drawn by Shel Silverstein to honor Della Hardman.

This weekend marks the 10th Della Hardman Day, which begins Friday with the opening of a Featherstone exhibition. In honor of the milestone anniversary, Mrs. Hardman’s students are returning to the Island.

The following are the three winning essays in the annual Della Hardman writing contest for high school students.

Oak Bluffs selectman Walter Vail called it a perfect Vineyard day. Kites hung in the clear blue sky over Ocean Park and a light breeze blew in off Nantucket Sound on Saturday. A crowd had gathered beneath a peaked tent to celebrate the memory of Della Hardman, a leader in the Island African American community and in the Island community as a whole.

The following essays were the top three winners in the annual Della Hardman Day essay contest for students at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. The theme this year was: “Does entertainment such as video games, TV, movies and social media, have the capacity to ‘ruin’ society, as Neal Gabler suggested in his book Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality.”