Twelve years ago, Marsha Winsyrg staged a small-scale effort to help a small group of Zambian artisans make a profit from their work. While in Africa visiting her daughter, Ms. Winsyrg saw the effects of poverty and AIDS “wrecking the fabric of the whole culture.” Upon her return to the States, she hauled back the handmade crafts to sell on the Island. The proceeds would go back to the struggling artisans.

Like many fourth graders, Ben Taylor was not a fan of school. But after he graduated from the Steiner School in New York and worked on a biodynamic farm in New Mexico, he began to appreciate and fully understand the Waldorf method of teaching.

To that end, on Wednesday this week Mr. Taylor will perform at the Island Theatre in Oak Bluffs to raise money to support the Plum Hill preschool. Money raised at the event will go to the school’s Together We Build capital campaign to help expand the school’s facilities.

A tranquil summer evening in Vineyard Haven may have seemed a strange place for a spine-chilling appraisal of the nation’s security gaps, but on Thursday night at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff sounded a bleak and vigilant tone, warning that we have entered into a new world and our concept of security must change accordingly.