From their earliest days, they did good works, and had fun doing them.
The first money they raised, from an informal series of summer square dances, went to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.
Over the decades, the people and organizations who have been helped by their efforts include Vineyard high school graduates, Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard, the Oak Bluffs Public Library, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Food Pantry, Windemere Nursing Home and Martha’s Vineyard Community Services.
In recent years, 35 Jamaicans have made their way north at the start of each summer season to work at the Harbor View Hotel and the Kelley House in Edgartown.
"They have become like family," general manager Dick McAuliffe said of the workers, who tended to return year after year.
This summer, however, the Jamaicans are not likely to return to the Edgartown hotels - or anywhere else in the United States.
Marie Allen is at home in the comfortable study that she built at her Munroe avenue house in Oak Bluffs: a place to read books and listen to the blues, where a carved wooden giraffe peers from behind the couch, African figurines line a tall bookcase and her granddaughter's stuffed toy dog rests on a cushion.
Mrs. Allen also is at home on Martha's Vineyard: an Island where she was married, where her children took their first steps, where her own daughter was married and where she retired about six years ago.
Mitigation Plan Saves Rare Plants Alongside Purple Tiger Beetles; Sandy Pathways Are Created Across West Tisbury Road
Consider the outlook of a purple tiger beetle living at the Martha's Vineyard Airport.
For the beetle, life has been good. The climate is agreeable. Its ancestors have made their home there for generations. Best of all, there's been a nice sandy path where the beetle, a carnivorous sort, can more easily spot its meals moving along.
The demolition and reconstruction of the old Army Barracks building
on Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs was never referred to the Martha's
Vineyard Commission as a development of regional impact (DRI), even
though it met the standard for referral and review by the commission.
In a letter dated Feb. 22, commission DRI coordinator Paul H. Foley
said the structure should have been referred to the MVC under two
sections of its DRI checklist that pertain to historic buildings.
Growing deeply dissatisfied with the state's proposed two-bridge solution to the ailing Lagoon Pond drawbridge, Vineyard representatives are now planning to go straight to the top and seek a meeting with the newly named state transportation secretary to see if an alternative can be found.
The decision to make direct contact with Secretary John Cogliano, who has Island ties, came at Wednesday's meeting of the Lagoon Pond drawbridge committee.
In West Tisbury, the board of assessors decides not to mediate a tax appeal, landing the town in an extended slugfest at the state level that has yet to conclude.
In Oak Bluffs, residents complain about what they see as a lack of responsiveness from the building department and the zoning board of appeals.
In Dukes County, a turf battle between the county and airport commissions has resulted in a legal judgment that could cost local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Is Vineyard government, in some instances, going awry?
