Gary Murphy came to Vineyard House in July of 2006 with a broken marriage, taxes piled up, child support debt and a much bigger problem.
“I was a functional alcohol addict,” he said. “But I just got sick of being out there, and I wanted to give it one more try. I’ve been clean ever since.”
Just last month he left Vineyard House after serving as a house manager for five years.
In the summer of 1992, a few friends from Connecticut College, Wesleyan University and Skidmore College who knew each other from high school had the idea to spend the summer on the Vineyard doing what they liked best: singing.
Jody Alford and friends each gathered a couple of members from their respective collegiate a cappella groups and headed to the Island, forming a group they called the Vineyard Sound.
Air quality tests will be done in the Tisbury town hall following a painting and renovation project that caused complaints among town workers about fumes inside the building.
At their meeting last week, the Tisbury selectmen voted to spend $900 on the testing. “After the painting and all the work that revolved around the process, we thought it would be helpful to have some kind of air quality testing done, to know what’s in the air, if anything at the moment,” town administrator John Bugbee told the board.
Lyme disease, the tick-borne illness that has been documented at epidemic levels on the Vineyard, is now the focus of a growing public health initiative that involves Island doctors, boards of health and university researchers.
The initiative, which aims to zero in on prevention, education, and improved data collection, is seen by at least one leading expert as a possible model for the rest of the state.
Dana Nunes perched naked on a pedestal of pillows and blankets inside a studio at Featherstone Center for the Arts.
“I get a kick out of the flea market go-ers who look through the window and back up . . . and then look again,” she said.
Ms. Nunes was the model for the Tom Maley Life Drawing class which last Tuesday morning was experiencing another full house, as the flea market was in bloom right outside the doors.
Class facilitator Anne Gallagher asked everyone to make room for old and new faces alike.
Judith Hannan spent the first couple of decades of her working life floating from one job to another — a clerk, an office temp, a secretary, a fundraiser.
“I’m like a jellyfish. I just drift. I have drifted into everything I’ve ever done,” she said. “But once I became a mother, for the first time I felt so unbelievably engaged.”
