Community Shorts
Babysitter Show-Off
Riley's Reads, a children's bookstore located off Main Street in Vineyard Haven, is holding a Babysitter Show-Off on August 14 at 6:30 pm to aid in the prevention of child abuse. The purpose of the event is for great families and great babysitters to get to know one another. Babysitters will take a few minutes to talk about themselves and present their experience, and moms will get to take home a professionally-bound "Babysitter Guide," full of photos, profiles, and résumés of each babysitter as well as coupons for local and national mom-friendly businesses. Discounted tickets cost $50. For more information, visit babysittershowoff.com, or call 508-629-1776.
Fair shots
If you're heading to the annual Agricultural Fair, take some photographs and enter yourself in The Times' Fair photo and video contest. There will be a prize for both the winning photo and video. Be creative - anything goes. To enter, upload video or photo to mvtimes.com/ag-fair or bring it to The Times office at 30 Beach Road in Vineyard Haven. Videos should be a maximum of three minutes long and set at 640x480 resolution at medium to high quality, or 320x240 resolution at high quality.
The entry deadline is 12 noon on Monday, August 25. For more information, call 508-693-6100.
Tax deduction
This weekend, August 15-17, shop tax-free on the Island. And as an added bonus in Tisbury, a purchase of $25 or more at several businesses will get you a free movie ticket to the Capawock Theatre. The businesses are Kennedy Studios, Mediterranean, Bowl & Board, and Martha's Vineyard Heart. There's a maximum of four tickets per receipt.
Art restoration
In support of the Bradley Square restoration, galleries in the Oak Bluffs Arts District will donate a percentage of their sales on this Saturday, August 16, to the project. For more information, call Holly Alaimo at the Dragonfly Gallery at 508-693-8877.
It's a gamble
Island Affordable Housing Fund, in collaboration with Island Elderly Housing, has begun a new fundraiser to raffle off a house in Edgartown's Jenney Way community. The raffle will sell a maximum of 600 tickets for $1,000 each, and the winner will receive the keys to #2 Jenney Way: a 2-bedroom, 1.5 bath LEED certified Cape house built by South Mountain Company. The Key2MV raffle runs until Saturday, Oct. 11, at 4 pm. For a ticket or for more information, visit islandaffordable.org, key2mv.org, or call 508-696-0943.
Photo by Mary Baker
A grain of creativity
The Edgartown Board of Trade's annual Sand Sculpture Contest was held on Thursday, August 7, a day late because of a rainy Wednesday. Approximately 30 children and adults participated for cash prizes and unique, homemade medals for their sandy creations of reptiles, Olympic-themed statues, and mini-cities.
First place winners in the junior category were Ben Clark, Silas Berlin, and Mason Jeffers. In the adult category, first place winners were Barry, Donna, Laura, Matthew, and Emily Fabius.
