As you give thanks this holiday season, remember the hungry children here on our Island. Your gift of $25 to the Vineyard Committee on Hunger will provide a holiday dinner, a complete healthy meal, for a local family. Betty Burton says that the bottom line is that we are getting fewer donations this year to feed more families. Often their refrigerators are almost empty. Can you help? Write your check to the VCOH and mark it for the Family-to-Family Program. Your family will be feeding another island family at the holidays. Mail your check to the (VCOH), PO Box 4685, Vineyard Haven, 02568.
Islanders will say their final farewell to two special Vineyard ladies next Saturday. The service for Edie McClintock is at 11 am at the Federated Church in Edgartown. Kits Blair will be remembered at 1 pm at the First Congregational Church in West Tisbury.
Louisa Gould Gallery is offering Small Treasures, specially priced smaller artwork in various mediums from new and familiar artists. See these offerings now through the end of the year. You can meet some of the artists on the Friday after Thanksgiving from 4 to 7 pm and enjoy cranberry punch, wine, and cheese. The artists include Donna Straw, John Holladay, Paul Beebe, Donna Blackburn, among many others.
Some of our favorite artists will have special items at the Holiday Gift Show now open at Featherstone. Paintings by Nancy Kingsley, fleece designs by Betsy Edge, and Fred Hancock’s artworks in wood are all available. Buy gifts made by local artists, priced from $5 to $250. This show is open every afternoon from noon to four, through December 18.
Peacecraft gifts from Haiti will be for sale every afternoon through December 24 across the street from the Black Dog Tavern.
Our Tisbury School library is having their annual Book Fair and you’re invited. Come after school the week after Thanksgiving. That’s Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 2:45 to 4 and Wednesday until 7 pm. There are books for all ages. All the profits benefit the school library. For more information call Emily Levett at 508-696-6527.
You can raise money for a children’s school in Kenya and dance off your turkey calories on the Saturday evening after Thanksgiving. The World Dinner Dance is for all ages at the Chilmark Community Center from 5:30 to 9 pm. You should be hungry again by Saturday night. Adult tickets at the door are $25, kids $10 — a family is $50. You can also buy small holiday gifts made in Kenya.
We are so proud of our Vineyard Haven Library. They have just announced a $3,000 grant from the American Library Association and NEH for a five-part series, “Making Sense of the American Civil War.” A hundred and fifty years after the War Between the States seems a good time to consider the legacy of the Civil War and emancipation. The library will also receive copies of three books: “March” by Geraldine Brooks, “Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam” by James McPherson, and an eclectic anthology of material on “America’s War.”
Leading this new series will be Betty Burton and Sheldon Hackney, a noted historian whose work focused on the history of the American South. He is the Boies Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. We will tell you the dates as soon as they are set.
Big bunches of birthday balloon wishes go out to Chris Chandler on Saturday. Partying next Wednesday will be Adam Rogers and Joseph Canha.
Heard on Main Street: Don’t slow down for turkeys.
