Emily Fischer sat on the steps of the shed in her front yard at Flat Point Farm in West Tisbury, yellow rubber gloves pulled up to her elbows, hard at work on her latest batch of goat’s milk soap.

By JULIAN WISE

Martha’s Vineyard may be 2,550 miles from Christ Roi, Haiti, yet the distance will be bridged with the Vineyard’s Haitian Celebration, a gala event that will raise funds to help get the Port-au-Prince neighborhood back on its feet after a series of devastating events. Throughout a ruinous earthquake, cyclone strikes and a cholera outbreak, the residents of Christ Roi have maintained a spirit of resilience and optimism.

As Islanders get accustomed to the newly-built, state-of-the art YMCA in their midst, they are simultaneously getting acquainted with Julian Villegas, the senior program director there. The soft-spoken Columbian native is quickly making himself known as a warm and welcoming ambassador for the YMCA’s mission of bringing families and communities together.

By her own definition, artist Victoria Campbell’s life path has been “a long, crooked road,” with interludes in theatre, filmmaking and performance art. Her restless creative peregrination has taken her through Europe, New York and Los Angeles. In an unforeseen twist, Ms. Campbell’s journey took a detour into the ruined slums of Haiti in the wake of the January quake. On Wednesday, July 14, art and humanitarianism will come together as she screens her acclaimed documentary House of Bones at a fundraiser for the Haitian neighborhood of Christroi.

By now the contours of the affordable housing dilemma are painfully familiar — soaring real estate values have squeezed middle-class Islanders, forcing them to choose between a shaky rental market or relocating off-Island. In an attempt to move the debate beyond Darwinian free-market economics and glacially-paced town initiatives, Vineyard realtor Jim Feiner is attempting to forge a third path, blending private philanthropy and free-market economics to provide affordable homes for the Island community.