MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

We have a Person of the Week living among us on Chappaquiddick. It’s Pat Rose, who was given the honor by WMVY radio on Sept. 17. Pat, an Edgartown library trustee, has been collecting returnable bottles and cans to raise money for the library’s new building and, nickel by nickel, has raised $8,500. She has also taken thousands of bottles and cans out of the waste stream. Pat has been driving over 250 miles a week on her pickup rounds since August a year ago, with 100 per cent of the refunds going to the library fund.

The easy collecting bins for Pat are at the Point and at the library, but with the help of John, she has been collecting everyday year-round at the two Sharky’s restaurants, Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, and every afternoon during the summer at several Edgartown restaurants. All year long, one or more times a week she also picks up returnables in three Island towns at restaurants, businesses, a golf course, clubs, the Edgartown police, and at the homes of people who call her.

After she reaches $10,000, Pat is thinking of cutting back on her rounds because of gas costs and how time consuming it has become — she also has a job at the Lightkeeper’s Inn. She’d like to find one or two people who could pick up at Sharky’s a couple of days a week, and then she could continue with the library bins and the Point.

Pat says that although she’s not really a morning person, she has come to enjoy the early part of the day, the solitude of the beach as she drives to Oak Bluffs, or while parked at the bend in the road at State Beach, drinking her coffee. She has enjoyed her early morning encounters with delivery and trash personnel at the various pickup points, too. When she started the project, she had to get to Sharky’s in Oak Bluffs before the trash pickup in order to get the returnables before they were taken. But after a while the trash guys knew she would be there, and left the bottles and cans, so now she can go anytime. Pat says, “It has made me appreciate, even more, how much work it takes to maintain this island.”

If you wondered where the Chappy column was the last two Fridays, it’s a mystery even to those of us who should know. It seems to have entered a kind of Bermuda Triangle of the Internet. Sorry for the missing news, one item of which was the potluck hosted by Annie Heywood — thanks Annie. And anyone who missed the chance to buy a copy of the Chappy recollections book can call Hatsy Potter.

On Oct. 4, Nisa Kontje, daughter of Geof Kontje and Patrie Grace, was married to Tim Webster, a kindred spirit of the ocean, at a beautiful wedding on the beach at Aquinnah, with the waves crashing on the shore behind them. Nisa’s siblings Reade, Eli, Marlin and Iris were all part of the ceremony, with Nisa and Tim’s son Theo looking on. Lily Morris, who grew up with Nisa on Chappy and has been friends with her practically since birth, was the maid of honor. Nisa, Tim, and Theo are presently living in Chilmark.

Shirley and Ted Dewing’s grandson, Chris Pelcher, has been given a four-year scholarship to play basketball for the Gaels at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. The proud grandparents reported the story was written up in the Albany Times Union on Oct. 6.

The board of the community center has been at work on the 2009 calendar, a fund-raiser originally created by Karen and Frank Gazarian three years ago. The pictures for each calendar month are taken from the beautiful photos of Chappaquiddick that hung this past summer in the community center photo contest. The calendars will be ready before Thanksgiving, and will be mailed or can be picked up. Order forms can be downloaded from the Web site: chappycommunitycenter.org.

On the Web site, you can also find information about happenings at the community center, of which, granted, there are not many this time of year. But a few important events are planned besides the first and third Wednesday potlucks (next one is Nov. 5), and they show up on a handy calendar on the Web site.

One such event is the open house and craft fair planned for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 29. There will be more information about that later, but if there is anyone who would like to sell crafts or other Chappy items, please be in touch with me at 508-627-8894 or e-mail the community center at chappycc@verizon.net.

With the end of the fishing derby, the Chappy ferry is on its winter schedule until mid-May: 6:45 a.m. until 7:30 p.m., 9 to 10, and 11 to 11:15.

Now that the evening starts so early, Peter Wells would like to remind drivers to use only their parking lights while waiting in line for the ferry. Headlights can be blinding to the ferry captains as they come into the slip, and especially with the current so strong, we should give them every possible chance to find their way in.

The On Time II has been hauled out at the shipyard in Vineyard Haven for more than a week while Peter and Jonathan Morse “fix its little injuries it sustained in hitting the dock all summer.” Peter also says the Coast Guard has done its initial hull inspection. Work will continue on the II for another couple of weeks, during which time the boat will get new propellers with five blades instead of the present three. After that the On Time III will be hauled for its regular maintenance.

Jonathan and Kim cleaned out the II’s bilges that were full of dirt from washing down the deck all last winter when parts of North Water and Daggett streets were dirt. When I mentioned to Kim at the ferry that I thought she was brave to be cleaning the bilges – thinking of the Captain Aubrey books where the early 1800s sailing ships’ bilges held all sorts of foul things including dead rats – she said she once found the skeleton of a mouse down there.

Brad, who was driving the ferry, said they often see mice on board, and he showed me where they run along the deck to reach the ramp. I wonder if the town mice like to come to Chappy for the fresh air or if Chappy mice go to town for the evening where there’s more to eat at the restaurants and houses. If the economy keeps on going downhill, maybe Peter will have to establish a mouse rate for the ferry.