I appreciate the overall sentiment behind your August 9 editorial titled “Price of Entry,” suggesting some sort of user fee for national organizations and political candidates who come here to fundraise, the proceeds from which would support local causes. But I feel an important caveat was missing from the pitch.

There is no question that on any given summer night or weekend, the conflicts on fundraising events alone can boggle the mind and flood our calendars. And we’re not alone. I recently heard of a development officer from a major West Coast university who rents a place on Cape Cod every summer so that he can work donors there, on Nantucket and the Vineyard, and in Maine.

It’s true there are a lot of outstretched hands, many of which do not directly benefit the Vineyard. Yet it is equally true that our year-round population has access to incredible services and activities largely because of the generosity of our seasonal community. Think about it: a modern hospital, expanded social and mental health services, a free summer lunch program serving the 40 per cent of our students who receive subsidized lunches in the school year, free tennis or sailing instruction for our youth, local college scholarships. It’s a list that literally could go on and on.

So I would suggest it’s not an either or proposition. In fact, it seems to me in my small world at the Island Grown Initiative where we are striving to achieve food equity and integrate our work with complimentary efforts to expand year-round housing and social services, most donors multi-task. They care greatly about the community that’s become their second home while they’re simultaneously engaged in some larger world objectives.

Rebecca Haag

Chilmark

The writer is executive director of the Island Grown Initiative.