Welcome, November! Did you remember to turn your clocks back this weekend? I must admit that I love that first Sunday morning when I roll over thinking that I have to get up and realize that it’s actually an hour earlier so I can go back to sleep. It happens every year, and I love it. Is there any better feeling than waking up early enough in the morning to be able to close your eyes and go back to sleep for awhile? Well, there are most definitely better things than that, but it’s pretty high on my list of comforts! I am so NOT a morning person.
The Edgartown Fire Department would like to remind you that this is a great time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. Doing it at the same time as changing your clocks is an easy way to keep track of how old the batteries are.
Kara Shemeth asked me to let you all know that the Edgartown Community Fitness Area is up and running (no pun intended). The fitness area is located at the recreation area down by the Boys and Girls Club courts. I’ve already used it a couple of times myself, and can give a first-hand testimony that it’s a great addition to the rec area. Thank you, Kara, for working so hard to get this set up for the community. I know it hasn’t been easy and it took a lot longer than you thought. Your efforts are appreciated.
Martha’s Vineyard Community Services Family Center, in collaboration with the Island Wide Youth Collaborative, is co-hosting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, led by experts in the field Kerry Bickford and Rick Bickford, LICSW. Information about trends and issues facing grandparents raising grandchildren will be shared over coffee and discussion on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 10 am to 11:30 am at the Martha’s Vineyard Family Center in Vineyard Haven.
The Edgartown Council on Aging invites you to come enjoy lunch with them on Tuesdays and Fridays. All generations welcome; no need to be over 50! Their lunches are fun, freshly prepared, fantastic, and affordable. On $2 Tuesdays, a sandwich is served with soup or salad and dessert, and on $5 Fridays, an entrée is served with soup or salad and dessert. They are offering a meatloaf sandwich on Nov. 10, open-face tuna melt on Nov. 17, and a black bean burger on Nov. 24. Friday entrées this month are manicotti on the 6th, chicken cutlets on the 13th, and shepherd’s pie on the 20th. Please call 24 hours in advance for a reservation. And as always, you can eat in at the Anchors, or take your meal “to go.”
The Edgartown School will be presenting its annual junior high musical, “Beauty and the Beast,” on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6 and 7, at 7 pm in the school gym. Come see this group of very talented teens and tweens sing and dance. The play is directed by Donna Swift, while the musical direction is provided by the Edgartown School music teacher extraordinaire, Kelly Sullivan. This is an annual event that always pleases the crowd!
Are you a parent of an Edgartown School student? Do you know about the school banking program? Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, with the help of a few very devoted volunteers, provides students the chance to save money every Thursday morning in the school cafeteria, just before school starts. It is a great program to get the kids involved in. My kids both started saving in kindergarten, with the plan that the money they saved would offset the cost of their 7th grade ski trip and 8th grade Washington, D.C., trips, if they didn’t want to do fundraising. If they chose to fundraise all the money they needed for those trips, they would be allowed to keep the money they had in the bank when they graduated. It’s a wonderful program, and families are still welcome to stop in at school on any Thursday morning, fill out paperwork, and start banking!
I heard that the MVRHS Minnesingers Homecoming concert and fundraiser was great fun and very successful last week. As a former Minnesinger, I considered going, but just couldn’t rally myself on a Friday night at the end of a long week, which isn’t uncommon for me. But in hindsight, I kind of wish I had gone. Among other things, in one of the final events of the evening, Molly Conole led everyone in “Dear Old Martha’s Vineyard,” written by my great-grandfather, Thomas J. Ryan, in 1914. I remember growing up with copies of the sheet music around our house, but I never did actually hear the song. It would have been pretty cool to sing it.
Have a great week, everyone. Thanks for reading. Be sure to send me your news. And remember: One kind word can change someone’s whole day!
