The first day of spring, Sunday last, the Oak Bluffs Fire and EMS invited all retired and past members to share a breakfast and have a tour of their recently completed Fire Station. I was fortunate enough to also be invited, and enjoyed the breakfast and meeting old friends. The building has two large meeting rooms with Power Point capabilities, several small meeting areas, offices, storage rooms and a huge apparatus area. It certainly is a department and building that the town can be proud of. However, the second day of spring was not as nice as we were treated to snow flurries which thankfully only amounted to an inch or so and will hopefully melt soon.
The whole Island is getting a wonderful gift on Saturday and Sunday, April 2 and 3, when the Island Community Chorus will present a free 20th anniversary concert at the Performing Arts Center at the MVRHS. The Brahms Requiem will be performed with chorus and orchestra. You may see this production at 7:30 pm Saturday, April 2 or at 3 pm on April 3.
The West Tisbury Democratic Town Committee will hold a caucus on Saturday, March 26, at the Howes House. The meeting will start promptly at 10 am; doors will open at 9:30. All registered Democrats residing in West Tisbury are invited to attend.
Our Oak Bluffs Library will be the site of a spring egg hunt on Saturday, March 26 at 10 am. Please bring your own basket or bag and this is a leveled hunt for kids of all ages. Enjoy magic tricks at the Library from 11 am to noon the same day. Magic Marvin’s Magic Show, an event for all ages, will brought to the library by The Yard.
Also at the Library, on Saturday, March 26 from 1 to 2 pm, Herb Foster is giving a sure-to-be-exciting talk titled “Octogenarians Are Still Horny: Aging and Changing Sexual Mores.”
And Library Mini Golf will be returning to the Oak Bluffs Library in April. There will be a catered adults-only session on the evening of Friday, April 1. Beer from Offshore Ale, wine from Our Market, and food from Deon’s will be served. The cost will be $15 per person. Saturday’s mini-golf session is from 10 am to 1 pm and is for families only and is free.
The Oak Bluffs Senior Center will have Jonathan O’Dell give a presentation from CORD on the hearing impaired. The program starts at 1 pm on Wednesday, March 30th.
Martha’s Vineyard Community Services Veterans Outreach Program is holding their second annual Easter egg hunt on Saturday, March 26th from 10 am to noon on the MVCS Campus. Besides the egg hunt there will be arts and crafts, music and snacks and is free and open to the public.
On Monday, February 29, MVYouth awarded the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society $29,300 in support of their “Access and Inspiration Strings” program, to fund the purchase of 20 new violins and violas. The Society lends elementary school string players violins and violas, and the occasional cello, instruments that are 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 size, and allow them to graduate to larger sizes as they grow. Kim Baumhofer manages the 40 instruments and also prepared the successful grant application to MVYouth. The grant funds will also support three years of an Artist-in-Residence program which will give students in the strings program an opportunity to work with professional musicians and to offer concerts during the school year.
The Martha’s Vineyard Environmental Education Alliance is working with Biodiversity Works Director and Wildlife Biologist, Luanne Johnson in providing five educational poster presentations describing research, monitoring, conservation and restoration projects occurring on the Island. The posters are in round-robin circulation at five Island Libraries. The MPRI poster is on citizen monitoring of the horseshoe crab, and the importance of the crab to man and nature. It was designed by Susie Bowman and coordinated with Felix Neck. The posters will rotate between libraries at the beginning of each month.
The Good Friday service at First Baptist Church in Vineyard Haven will be held on March 26, at 12 noon. On March 27, there will be an Easter Sunday Service at Eastville Beach in Vineyard Haven, followed by a continental breakfast at the First Baptist Parish House. The Easter Sunday “Alleluia” service at the Church will be at 11 am.
Good Shepherd Parish’s services for Holy week will be held at St. Augustine’s Church in Vineyard Haven as follows: Holy Thursday, March 24 at 7 pm; Good Friday, March 25 at 3 pm, which includes liturgy of the word, veneration of the cross, and communion; stations of the cross on Friday, March 25 at 7 pm. On Saturday, March 26 at 7:30 pm there will be an Easter Vigil Service. On Sunday, March 27 there will be a Sunrise Service at 6:30am at Sheriff’s Meadow Beach, West Chop (Main Street, Vineyard Haven). Easter Masses are at 8 am, 10 am, and 11:30 am (Portuguese Mass) and also at 5 pm (English). There will be a Sunday Pot Luck Luncheon from 1 pm to 4 pm at St. Augustine’s Hall in Vineyard Haven, where all are welcome.
We send birthday smiles to Hunter Ponte on the 25th, June Manning on the 26th James Rebello and Hannah Gibb on the 28th, Kailyn Hart on March 28 and Garrett Broadey on the 31st.
Enjoy your week. Peace
