After a windswept foot of snow settled across Martha’s Vineyard over the weekend, some Islanders embraced a few days working from home with a fire blazing in the living room, while two snow days off from school resulted in a smattering of small igloos and backyard snowmen across the landscape.
Plows made their way through all six towns, with those behind the wheel staving off sleep to make sure the roads were safe, and there were reports of random acts of kindness like shoveling a neighbor’s driveway. It was the largest snowfall the Island has seen in years.
Children rode on sleds, both real and makeshift, down hills near Lake Tashmoo and at Sweetened Water Farm, while many adults toiled through the large heaps of snow, inviting both backaches and rosy cheeks, while plowing services got last-minute requests. And on an Island where neighbors are on a first-name basis, some stepped up to help others.
Jessica Donahue, for example, works as a caregiver for an elderly man, and her own father is on dialysis. She said if she hadn’t gone to shovel her father’s driveway on Monday, he wouldn’t have made it to his life-saving dialysis appointment that day.
“It just made me think of all the other people who would need it, and also who physically can’t do it,” Donahue said.
After she posted an offer on Facebook to shovel paths for people who couldn’t dig themselves out of the snow, she received dozens of responses from all across the Island. She has no special electric tools, just a few shovels and help from her three kids.
“My kids loved it,” Donahue said. She has a 12-year-old, 10-year-old, and 6-year-old, all of whom helped her on Monday. They shoveled 10 driveways as a family, two of which were paid jobs, and the rest were a free service to older individuals. “My kids were doing the math, and they were like, if 10 more families did this, we could have done 100 elderly people … I was proud of them.”
Donahue said she hopes other people feel inspired to do the same, and said that the work was extremely rewarding for herself and her family.
Still, clearing a path in the snow to a main road is one thing, but not everyone on the Island has stable shelter to tough out the weather. And county officials told Vineyard residents to “shelter in place,” which for at least one Islander was a challenge.
Brian Raiche, a local who usually lives in a tent outside throughout the year with his dog named Puppy, knew he had to prepare differently this year. Last February, Raiche and Puppy got frostbite when they stayed outside during a winter storm.
“Everything we owned was frozen. Food, water, and blankets had frost on them,” Raiche remembered from last year. His boots were covered in ice, along with his knuckles and feet, and Puppy’s paws and ears.
This year, Raiche housesat for an elderly local who is in the hospital, while emergency notifications pinged across the Vineyard and alerted the public to the incoming cold front that came through this weekend.
Raiche is the only unhoused person with a pet in the off-season he knows of, so he has alternative considerations this time of year, since the Harbor Homes winter shelter doesn’t take in animals. But Raiche is one of 341 people who, according to unhoused services on the Island, doesn’t have housing. And after this coming weekend, the housesitting gig is over, and Raiche and Puppy are on their own.
“The homeowner will probably be home Saturday. Then me and Puppy on the street for this storm this weekend. We need to find a place,” Raiche said.
Warming centers had been set up in churches and libraries across the Island, and Harbor Homes, which provides an overnight shelter for unhoused individuals, had made preparations a week ahead of the storm’s arrival.
While there weren’t any major issues, Lisa Belcastro, overnight shelter director at Harbor Homes, said the shelter was without power for hours between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, which was eventually restored through the help of Eversource and Kevin Nydam of Nydam Electric Co., who made the call to the utility company for repairs.
Belcastro said the downstairs portion of the shelter still had some power, and was warm, so those at the shelter decided to stay in place at the location. Belcastro said everyone received flashlights, and Harbor Homes personnel filled a bathtub with water for bathroom purposes. And shelter guests spent time in various ways, like taking a nap or watching a movie on a phone.
Although even the downstairs portion of the shelter lost power temporarily before Eversource’s repairs, Belcastro said it wasn’t cold. Lunch was submarine sandwiches accompanied by brownies and snacks, and one volunteer brought kettles of hot water for tea and hot cocoa.
“The shelter team to me is the best team on the planet, and they give so generously of their time and their heart,” Belcastro said.
Lisa also highlighted Chef Ting of Black Joy Kitchen and Juli Vanderhoop of Orange Peel Bakery, who were scheduled to lead a Joyful Eating class in Edgartown Sunday. The class is held every Sunday, with a different chef leading each time, and the food made there is donated to Harbor Homes. And while only three of eight sous-chefs made it to class that day, the Island chefs were able to bring food to people.
Chef Ting and Vanderhoop parked as close as they could to the shelter building and delivered the food at the Harbor Homes facility, bringing jerk chicken, collard greens, coconut rice and peas, fried plantains, and mango salsa.
“The Island comes together,” Belcastro said.
