Letters to the Editor
Dreams come true, with help
To the Editor:
I want to congratulate the LPN Class of 2009, which graduated on Friday, June 19, at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs.
Over the past year you have balanced school, family responsibilities, and work. It is both your dream and our dream coming true. This day could not have happened without the support of many in our community.
For the past five years, we struggled mightily to put an LPN program on the Island. We needed funding and an educational institution willing to come to the Island. We also needed an instructor, space, mentors, and clinical sites.
Funding has come from two sources: a grant from the state work force initiative program, coordinated by Michael Cochran, and from the Lennar foundation of Miami, based on the recommendation of Allen and Audrey Pekor as a worthy project.
We would not be here today without the resources of the Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School. They crossed the pond from the Cape to provide our island with the LPN program. Many thanks to Kevin Farr and Pat Gales for their vision and leadership.
We have the great fortune of having a very committed, dedicated, and effective instructor, Deb Herlihy, who moved to the Vineyard to teach the program over the past two years.
This year, space for the program was at a crisis. Last year, the LPN program used an empty room at Windemere. This year, all of the rooms were full, so we scrambled to come up with an alternative. Paul Watts, Mike Perry, and Joan Shemit came forward with a plan to use Sovereign Bank's training room at the Triangle. Paul Watts, in his very persuasive way, was able to get corporate to approve use of the room. Our only restriction was that since we were inside the bank, we were limited to banking hours for the LPN program.
When the new president of Sovereign came to inspect the bank at the Triangle, his only question was, "who was the lady in the bed in the training room?" I can safely say that we are the only LPN program in the country that operates inside a bank.
I would like to thank the nursing leadership at both Windemere and Martha's Vineyard Hospital: Marie Zadeh, Marie Araujo, Carol Bardwell, Laura Hillard, and Donna Enos, for being mentors to the 2009 class. The Island provided clinical sites at Windemere, Martha's Vineyard Hospital, Island House, MV Community Services, the VNA, Vineyard Pediatrics at Dr. Goldfein's office, and the Oak Bluffs Elementary school.
We have had nine students, each with a story of balancing work, family, and the educational program. I would like to highlight one student's odyssey.
Latonia James is a 10-year dietary employee who was accepted into the LPN program last summer. Little did she know how much of a challenge she faced. Her husband was called up by the National Guard in September.
Latonia, mother of three daughters - Dayanna, age 11, Danielle (7), and Damaya (3) - organized, delegated, and studied with her three children during the school year. She never missed a day in dietary. Did I mention she is also very competitive? We are exceptionally proud of Latonia. With all of her aforementioned skills, she will make a great nurse.
Windemere and Martha's Vineyard Hospital have been proud to be a part of this great program. We are looking forward to many years of great care of our Island residents by our new LPNs.
Ken Chisholm
Administrator of Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, and M. V. Hospital
Thank you for all you've done
To the Editor:
Our nine-year-old daughter, Samantha Cassidy, has just finished 25 months of chemotherapy for B-Lymphoblastic Lymphoma at the Dana-Farber Jimmy Fund and Children's Hospital. It feels impossible to put into words how incredibly grateful we are to our community and family for all of the love and support we have received throughout this crisis, but we feel the need to try.
You helped us financially with fundraisers. You cooked us meals. You took care of our other children during our hospital stays. You cleaned our house. You let us cry on your shoulders. You smiled at us and hugged us in the grocery store. You told us you were praying for us. You cheered us on and literally gave us the strength to keep going. Just to name a few.
Thank you to Audrey Harding and the Visiting Nurse Association. Audrey was at Samantha's side for 25 months and came at the drop of a hat, no matter what time it was to give Samantha what she needed. Audrey has been one of our rocks. At Samantha's sickest moments, she not only helped to comfort us as parents, but also gave Samantha the confidence she needed to continue with whatever medical procedure was about to happen next. She was one of her best advocates, always listening to her needs first. This organization has been vital to our treatment here on the Vineyard.
We especially thank the Martha's Vineyard Hospital Emergency Room doctors, nurses and staff. There were several nights that we stayed overnight in the ER to await an ambulance ride to Boston the following morning. During these long, emotional, and sometimes scary nights, we always felt safe and well taken care of. Thank you for your expertise, your professionalism, and the tenderness you showed Samantha during her most vulnerable times.
The Martha's Vineyard Cancer Support Group has been a huge emotional and informational support to our family. Thank you for consistently being there for us throughout this ordeal.
The best news is that Samantha has an excellent prognosis. The doctors fully expect her to recover. We are looking forward to a summer of healing and are eternally grateful to be able to live in such a loving and caring community. Thank you, sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts.
Debbie Grant
Michael Cassidy
Edgartown
Always first
To the Editor:
This letter was sent to Stephen Nixon, principal, Martha's Vineyard Regional High School.
The Class of 1960 would like to thank you for the remembrance of our class as the first graduating class of the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School. We knew when we graduated that it would always be an honor to be the first class, but who would have ever imagined that we would have been honored at the graduation of the 50th class.
The reception at the high school in our honor was fun for all. The food and music made it a very special affair. We all enjoyed reminiscing about our high school years and how unique it was for all of us who had been in separate high schools to join together for our last year.
We all felt very special and honored to lead the Class of 2009 into the Tabernacle. The new honorary diplomas we now have, officially acknowledging us as the first graduating class, will be a nice keepsake.
Thank you again for taking the time and effort to remember our class.
Donna Gazaille
Vineyard Haven
For the Class of 1960
SSA must reduce its costs
To the Editor:
Well, here we go again with another article on why it cost so much for the Steamship Authority to operate. The price of fuel has dropped drastically, and yet the Steamship Authority finds that it must again increase the fares.
With the fares increasing continuously, this means that the retail goods and the food supplies shipped to the Vineyard cost more. When this happens, breakfast at one of the local restaurant costs $20 per person, and dinner comes in at roughly $75 per person. The public shops on the Internet for hard goods and we see that response with the increase sightings of trucks from Federal Express and UPS. Tourists from New York, Connecticut, and even Rhode Island want to visit us, but yet they go to the Cape instead, to eliminate the ferry charge to the Vineyard.
Why does it cost so much to use the ferry? Well, the Steamship Authority hires more than twice the number of staff that is suggested by the United States Coast Guard. Out of work? See your state representative, and he will get you a job with the Steamship Authority. No skills required.
Times are tough today, and yet the Steamship Authority will see another $1 million in additional health care and pension costs in 2009. Oh yeah, that is on top of the wage increases of 3.4 percent. Why can't management hold the line on hiring workers to just hang around on the docks? For them, it is just easier to have the public pay the added charges of higher wages.
Fred R. Kennedy
Oak Bluffs
More must be done
To the Editor:
Unbelievable tragedy fills our hearts with sorrow and pain. We cannot begin to express the feelings that are upon us as we reach out to the Pothier family for the horrendous loss of their beautiful, young and vibrant daughter, Jena. There are no words strong enough to comfort them in this sorrowful time. We also understand the pain that Kelly McCarron and her family are experiencing at this time. We wish them support and love. Unfortunately, we understand, all too well, what both of these families are going through at this time. It is our greatest wish that no parent, grandparent, brother or sister ever feel this type of pain.
How many crosses must we bear at the side of our Vineyard roads? This is a pain that rips to the core of your very being. Your child is there with you waking and having breakfast, making summer plans, then off to college in the fall, so full of life, love, hope, joy. It all ends in just a flash. One moment they are here, then you are choosing a casket. How can this be? How can this happen to me, to us? How do I wake up each day and look into their empty bedroom. How do I go on? The heartache is like no other.
Our wish and goal is that you never feel this type of pain. We don't want others to know this desperate pain. The only way to accomplish this is through knowledge and education. Please don't say that this won't happen to me. It can happen, and it does happen. It happens 6,000 times a year. That is how many teenagers die in car related crashes. Another 400,000 teens are injured each year as well. Another astounding number is that 40 percent of all 16-year-old drivers have been involved in a police reported accident.
What will it take to stop this from happening? It is simple, EDUCATION. The RMV only requires 30 hours of training. That is simply not enough. Teens need more modernized training, more knowledge, higher standards for safety. They need to know how to be better defensive drivers. They need to know how to avoid some of the everyday distractions. They need more awareness on the causes and effects of speeding, talking on the phone, drugs, alcohol and others in the car with them. We need our kids safe and coming home to us.
Let's hold our educators responsible and accountable to make driver education more of a priority. If it is a priority, it will get funded. Please don't let the heartache into your home like it has come into our home. We cannot express the emptiness we still feel for our own loss that occurred five years ago to our wonderful boy, David.
Having safe drivers of all ages benefits our entire community. Please join with us to make the best life can offer for all of us.
Barb and Tom Furino
Edgartown
Not front page
To the Editor:
I am uncomfortable with the way you handled the front page child abuse story last week. It's not that terrible stories don't belong in the newspaper. They do. But this Island is small enough to need different boundaries sometimes, and I think this was one of those times.
The children involved in your article live on the Island, where The Martha's Vineyard Times is ubiquitous in schools, libraries, and coffee shops. I don't presume to know their feelings about your coverage, but I also don't believe that any of their friends or classmates who catch a glimpse of your front page will come away the better for it.
I hope there will never be another story like this one, but in case there is, I think it would be better to print it several pages deep.
Molly Hitchings
West Tisbury
Random kindness
To the Editor:
That is what car drivers need to exhibit toward bike riders. There are many more cars on the roads than bike riders, so it seems the drivers could be just a little more patient when they encounter a bike rider.
I always use the bike paths when they are available, but Slough Cove, Road to the Plain, and Clevelandtown Road do not have a path, so I use the road. I also use my bike in-town to run errands, shop and make appointments to avoid parking my car.
Today I was riding on Winter Street, Main Street, and North Water Street when two cars blew their horns. Did they need to pass? I was riding 10-12 mph. Cars shouldn't go faster than that, just to be safe. These streets are narrow, have cars parked and pedestrians crossing as well.
So car drivers, the next time you encounter a bike rider, remember to do "A random act of kindness." Share the road.
Carolyn Connors
Edgartown
A shack's appeal
To the Editor:
To whoever did this: Aw. Come on. Why did you have to do that to me? I am the little shack on the shore at the foot of Skiff Avenue. I am owned by the Bangs family. They have always been so good to me. They decorate me with a Christmas wreath and nice greens in my window box. Then, when the warm weather comes they put flowers in my window box and hang the shell wreath on my door. They always tell me about the nice things people have to say about me. I guess people like to see me. I know, because I often see folks taking pictures of me, and I sometimes see artists painting pictures of me. That always pleases me.
Then you had to come along and tear the shells off one half of my wreath. That really hurt! Mrs. Bangs is now working hard to mend it, and she will soon have it put back on my door. I think you may be the same person who did something awful to me a few months ago. Someone smashed my windows, frame and all. That nice man, Dr. Tuck, made a brand-new one for me and put it up. I liked that.
But I wish I knew why you do these things. I just wish you would go to Mrs. Bangs and tell her you did it and that you are sorry. She won't get mad, I know. But she will tell you now much other people like to see me, and perhaps if you stopped and thought about it then you wouldn't do these things. You know, it is really nice to think about other people and their feelings. I just wish that someone who knew you did this would tell you about this letter. and then you would go see Mrs. Bangs. I know you would really feel better about it all if you did that. And so would I.
"The Shack" a.k.a. Dorothy K. Bangs
Vineyard Haven
Terrific start to summer
To the Editor:
This is a thank-you letter to the more than 400 people from every town on the Vineyard who joined us at the Tisbury Waterworks, now known as the Tashmoo Spring Pumping Station, for another spectacular Memorial Day celebration.
Thanks to the Water Works, the Tisbury DPW, and the Vineyard Playhouse, we had a perfect venue for this year's picnic.
And special thanks to everyone who donated food and equipment, to those who volunteered to help with the grill, the ice cream, and the games, to those who provided the boats, the pony rides, the music and the food, and especially to Isabel West, Dana Nunes, and Linc Hanson for resuming this wonderful Island tradition.
What a terrific way to begin yet another summer on Martha's Vineyard.
Harriet Barrow, Patricia Carlet, Aase Jones, Sandra Kingston, Marie Laursen, Ruth Major, Henry Stephenson,
Lorraine Wells, and Denys Wortman.
The Memorial Day Picnic Committee
Vineyard Haven
Good karma
To the Editor:
Last Thursday, my truck broke down on Old County Road, as it was starting to rain. A woman headed in the opposite direction gave me a ride all the way home; she covered my tools with a tarp on her way back up-Island, and even later that night brought me the Mermaid Farm Milk I had left in the truck. She didn't give me her name, just that she ran a shelter for birds. She wouldn't accept anything except the good karma. I just wanted to publicly recognize her kindness.
Alicia Lesnikowska
Vineyard Haven
Gagging Ms. Scott
To the Editor:
This letter is in response to the last selectmen's meeting in Oak bluffs. I could not believe what I was hearing from Greg Coogan to his colleague, Kerry Scott. He was telling her, in essence, that she "talked too much."
Blessings to Kerry for wanting open meetings, unlike the ones in the past where the good old boys made all the decisions in the back room, and the actual meeting was just a formality. Early on, Linda Marinelli helped solve that problem by having the meetings aired on TV.
I feel strongly that the taxpayers need to know what is going on and where our hard-earned money is going. Kerry is giving us that information. She has a right to speak her mind, as all of the selectmen do. Now, is she being gagged from speaking?
Greg, very unprofessional, very mean-spirited. I think that you owe her a public apology.
Helen Scarborough
Oak Bluffs
