Donations to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services continued to stream in the day after the 33rd annual Possible Dreams auction, bringing the total raised by the popular fund-raising event to more than $400,000, organizers said this week.

“We feel wonderful,” said Julia Burgess, executive director of Community Services, who will retire by next year. “We are very grateful to the people who contributed and came to the auction.”

A few days after hanging the Port Hunter sign on Main street in Edgartown, new restaurateurs Patrick and Ted Courtney received a visit from an old-timer. The man showed the brothers numerous old photos of the space including one that featured the front of the brick building and a sign mounted on steel with white lettering which spelled out First National. The sign was almost identical to their new sign, down to the font size and style.

“It kind of came back around... It was nice,” Ted said. “We felt like we were doing the right thing.”

At the open air market in Oak Bluffs last Sunday, Billy O’Callaghan sat in a lawn chair at the back of his tent crafting a small gray whale out of clay. A woman moseyed into his tent and examined the small clay figurines and the charming driftwood furniture. “These are fantastic,” she exclaimed. “Just beautiful.” The artist, an Irishman with graying hair and kind blue eyes, nodded in appreciation. A construction worker by trade, Mr. O’Callaghan has lived on the Island for 26 years.

Pulitzer prize-winning poet Jorie Graham has been coming to the Vineyard for thirty years. She often derives inspiration from the natural beauty of the Island.

“Perhaps my poems, if I am lucky, can awaken in [readers] a renewed relationship with the natural world which they can take with them into their lives...” she said.

How does one end up writing a book about a star child? For that matter, what is a star child?

Author Kay Goldstein was wondering the same thing a few years ago when she started writing the first pages of her newly released novel, Star Child, a process which caused her to delve into the depths of human experience.

Martina Thornton was sworn in as the new county manager on Wednesday evening. Mrs. Thornton, who served as executive assistant to the county manager for four years, said she is pleased with the contract she negotiated with the seven-member elected commission last week in executive session.

The terms of Mrs. Thornton’s contract include an annual salary of $67,709.