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MV Squirts Compete at Fenway Park

Island's own Squirts got once in a lifetime experience

• By Lara Robinson
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• January 13, 2012

   

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Following the success of the 2010 Winter Classic, Fenway Park, the great icon of Boston and home to the Boston Red Sox, has once again been frozen to accommodate an NHL size rink.  For the first two weeks of January, Fenway will showcase the best young players in the hockey world.  A wide variety of New England Colleges and Universities will compete in a number of games, including the two headline events when UMASS, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire play, and Boston College plays Northeastern. The precious few other available time slots on the ice are given to high schools and corporate sponsors of the Red Sox. However, two youth hockey teams from Martha’s Vineyard were holding aspirations to be added to the mix.  Over the holidays, the Squirt teams (ages 9-10) got busy sharpening their skates in preparation to take to the ice in the historic park of homeruns and world series championships. Then confirmation came - the MV Squirts would compete at Fenway!
So how did this dream of a lifetime come about?  Peter Gillis, a parent and coach for one of the two teams looked into getting ice time shortly after the event was announced.  Originally, they were told that no spots were available, but with the help of Bob Mone, a long time youth hockey supporter, they were able to secure a coveted spot on the Fenway ice. The team families went about fundraising to pay for the ice, and with the generous contributions from a wide variety of Island companies, team parents and team relatives – they were able to provide the Squirts with this once in a lifetime Christmas gift.
On January 3rd the MV squirt teams and coaches set off for Boston on a cold and sunny morning. On the ferry there was talk of a pod of whales, (the Army Corps of Engineers shut down the Cape Canal for two right whales of which it’s estimated only 500 exist) the kids played with their new toys, gadgets and i-everything's received over the holidays. But mostly, there was the excited chatter of nine and ten year olds sporting Bruins hats, jackets and thick hoodies - New Englanders, hockey fans, fresh-faced Vineyard kids, some young ones maybe unaware of the significance of this special day, as the routine of the trip itself was familiar to them. On the bus to Boston with bags stacked, sticks strapped and mouth guards in their pockets, they were ready for another game. The squirts are two of five travel teams from MV youth hockey that have been playing competitive games since October, traveling most weekends for off-island games, practicing hard twice a week, working closely as a team.
It wasn’t till we rounded the corner on Massachusetts Ave, when the lighting, seating, and billboards of the 100 year old park came into focus, rising up to the sky, did we hear the first kid shout.  “There it is! There’s FENWAYYYY.” And the excitement ran through the bus and caught hold of each kid and it was apparent some parents too.  Their faces told of delight just to be entering into the Fenway zone, many for the first time.
Upon arriving the teams were led through the concourses of Fenway Park, past the empty hotdog stands, into the Red Sox clubhouse, and down to the Red Sox batting cages underneath the stands.  The cages had been transformed into a makeshift locker room where the teams would dress for the game. Players and parents took turns walking up into the Red Sox dugout, and had their pictures taken in the same seats of their Red Sox heroes.
At 1:30 the puck dropped and the purple and white of Martha’s Vineyard dominated the ice in Fenway. We came as a compact group. Parents Dave Pizzano and Travis Pachico wore the stripes and blew the whistle. Teenagers Mason Jeffers and Nick Vukota kept score, and the crowd of parents, family and friends stuck close to the rink-side and cheered them on. The Squirts played a great game, a friendly game against one another, but they played competitively nonetheless. With a 3-3 score by the end of the second and the temperatures dropping rapidly, they came out in true Vineyard style to provide us with a close and exciting third period and kept us jumping up and down which was needed as it was now below freezing.
On the sidelines there were very little acoustics, unlike the indoor home rink.  Missing were the click and clack of skates and the thwack of stick on puck. Instead we got incredible views of the Prudential building looked down on them and the Green Monster as notable backdrops to their game. The teams traded goals in the 3rd period, and the Squirt 2 team battled hard to get the puck in and even the score but as the last second ticked in, the horn blew, and they finished the game with the Squirt 1 team winning 5-4.
A win-win nonetheless, the kids marched off the ice through the Red Sox dugout really proud of themselves. On the way home rushing to beat the city traffic, grabbing pizza on the run to get to 5.00pm ferry, it was clear by their mellow happy faces that dreams were fulfilled and memories were made.
The MV Youth hockey is a non-profit with large and rising expenses each year and relies solely on fees and fundraising. The commitment alone for parents begins with $1,200 for the year and that is not including gear or out-of-pocket expenses for parents to support their children. They are the children of parents who make up the backbone; the service and skills of the island industry.  Every year they come back to registration because of the many great attributes youth hockey offers young children: to learn how to play as a team, to learn the importance of sportsmanship and to develop a lifelong passion while character building through hard work.

In an effort to grow our numbers and give all young children the chance to play at a reasonable cost, (the new beginner season is free) the organization has started a new initiative GROWMVYH. If you love the game and/or wish to support this program, please contact growmvyh@gmail.com. For information on starting to play hockey go to the website www.mvyh.org

I live on a rock.

 

I live on a rock. 

A very fun loving, DIY, multi-personality, quirky type of rock. The glaciers formed the island of Martha's Vineyard over 10,000 years ago. 
I was not born here but on another island 4,000 miles away, in Ireland, raised on a little peninsula called Howth, (Howth is magic!) another ancient rock of dynamic constitution. Once an island cushioned, cozily by the Irish Sea.
 
It seems, I like rocky islands, isolation, places hard to get to and harder to leave. I'm a happy wash-ashore, rock hopper.

There is much in common between these towns. Notably, we have similar zip codes, made up of coveted land, lots of sheep and horses living with stunning views of blue-green horizons of sea meeting sky, the pulse of surf on boulders and crashing nor'easters. There is cliff face and dunes and meadows of fine timothy. There is to-die-for, or, to-die-there wishes made everyday. 
I look back at my first memory of 'The galley' in Menemsha tucked into the rustic harbor. A little shack nestled into a dock that feels like it will cave in at any moment. The creaky timbers of the pilings and the worn out ropes tethering rust bucket trawlers and splintered lobster boats. The Galley serves great lobster rolls. I thought I had found, a gem, a hidden little treasure, an oasis that no one else knew about. Mine, ours, we would raise our children here. Can you hear the music? Little did I know that that was exactly what I was supposed to think.  Thousands of people from all around the world come and visit this place.  All of them thinking the same thing. It has been carefully preserved to look like it was never discovered. A reverse Disney appeal. An Anti-Disney. It is an island mentality, engineered to keep you coming back to the old way of life, the one that screams, 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it,'. Vintage, darling.

For the people born here the sense of pride is deep. If you have come here to stay you are dubbed a wash ashore. If you are not born in Howth you are called a runner, because they used to run you out! 
The fishing community of MV goes back to it's very first inhabitants, the Wampanowag tribe. Howth was once the largest herring port in Ireland.  They have both been battered and torn asunder by political bartering, laws and regulations that have seen the fishing clans decline to a minimum. In fact, Howth has no commercial boats to it's name, it's fishing rights given away to European priority.  All the people we grew up with that worked on trawlers and those big awful beamers are no longer fishermen, instead working on the pier, in the ice house, fish shops or working jobs outside the fishing industry.  

But there are artists, writers and grass roots activists both sides of the water.

There is also another kind of community here, you see it in the letters to the editor every week of the MV Times. The 'we are a good island, a helpful, moral island. Love us.' The letters of gratitude range from - thanks to the EMTs for saving lives, a volunteer for aiding in an unexpected pickle, and always a signature letter of thanks for the honesty that lies deep within the Vineyard. 

In Howth, the community humor is reflective of the village life, where everyone knows much about each other. You can hear it in the chatter on the streets. The Howth summer camps, the Sunday market on the pier. Some might say it is too clannish, too many people minding your business, but many times it is friends helping friends. Maybe it's the wild weather, the feeling of being cut off from the rest of the world that brings small island communities closer. That brings out the pioneer, the community spirit that comes together to help each other out, island children and elders to the fore. Or maybe an understanding that if you want something done, do it yourself. In the Vineyard, volunteering and fundraising are a part of everyday life.

The food pantry had a busy winter here, housing has hit a crisis point with many families doing the Vineyard shuffle, not a dance, but renting a house for the winter and giving it up for summer $$$ rentals, only to return again when the 'summer people' have gone. Not an easy task with small kids.

 Howth lost a few pubs, and as I listen to my family and friends, 'nobody had penny'. These islands have seen better and worse than this turn of the times. Fortunately, the arts still thrive, ever evolving and culturally entwined with many events like, movie festivals, jazz, writing workshops, galleries are a plenty and continue to promote and encourage us to think. For the kids there is an exciting sports life, great schools and much to do. What would a place be without a hot topic and we at MV have our very own roundabout issues, and criminal lawyers and scam artists and haunted houses becoming Museums. It's rich!

While I have been living here, I've kept my eyes on, her sweetness, Howth, returning often, noting how she has handled the Celtic tiger, the collapse of the economy, her fishing industry, her hotel. It will be interesting to see the health of these two townships after this latest battery.  Either way, economically fit or not, their essence will remain, exactly what they are to me, a haven and sanctuary. Sister Rocks. Home!

Bouncing around in Ireland. 
Ireland's Eye.
Croak Patrick, another rock we climbed for Dana's 40th in May 2009.
Annoaroi Blaney with the Tri-colour and stars and strips.
Annoraoi Senior's pictures of the dock in Vineyard Haven.
Summertime the boat in the Lagoon, Vineyard Haven.

Learning from the earth

 By Lara Robinson.

With a guiding hand from Saskia Vanderhoop,  a hands-on impression of a wildflower. [More Photos]

There's an ongoing program in the heart of the woods in Aquinnah that can only be described as life-changing. I know, I'm watching one life change — slowly, like water dripping on rock, changing its shape over time. I see my daughter, Francesca, aged seven, embrace the world around her and above her and under her and in her.

Saskia. With the help of her husband, David, Saskia Vanderhoop founded Sassafras Earth Education in 2003. She is a blonde Dutch native with intense water-blue eyes; he is a member of the Wampanoag tribe. They take earth education very seriously, but in a seriously fun way.

On Thursdays after school, Ms. Vanderhoop runs a program called Girls in the Woods. On Saturdays she runs a co-ed class called Saturday Squirrels. A group of 8 to10 kids meet and explore nature all day; they walk on the silent trail, they Sherlock Holmes after animal tracks, they run their fingers through mud. They build fires of beech leaves and brush. They sit in chosen quiet spots and listen; they play in a teepee; they build fairy rings; and they observe the white flower of the wind shaker, shaking in the breeze. They hike to the sea and discover what lives in the sand. They hear the call of the golden-shafted flickers. They discuss, they observe, and they listen. Nothing that the earth has given gets by them unnoticed.

The Sassafras website declares an intention to teach nature connection, self-awareness, and a wish to build sustainable communities. Ms. Vanderhoop has become a leader of the East Coast division in the Art of Mentoring program based in Vermont. She studied with Jon Young, author of the "Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature," and Tom Brown Jr. of the Tracker School.

When asked if Sassafras focused strictly on indigenous Native-American culture, Ms. Vanderhoop pointed out that the curriculum crosses all cultures, because all cultures at one time learned to survive by their connection to nature. By teaching our children nowadays the importance of that connection to nature, we teach self-awareness and awake in them a passion for nature and for self-learning. It is this passion that will branch out and into who they become.

"So Francesca's not learning to be a nature guide then?" I asked.

"No, she may become, a musician, a teacher, a doctor," Ms. Vanderhoop responded with a laugh. "But whatever she becomes, she will know what she wants and she will be passionate about it, and about the world around her."

From an outsider's perspective, it might all seem a little trivial, but it goes quite deep. Recently, Francesca was invited to an all-girl outing off-Island with her cousins. There would be dresses, manicures, very expensive cake, and lots and lots of consumerism. "We'll leave on the 9:30 am ferry to be there for 11," I told her.

I expected at least a hug, a shriek, a cry of joy, and was slightly taken aback when her head drooped and a tear trickled. "But I'll miss Sassafras!" she said.

She didn't.

Talking "more scientific," as she describes it, Francesca now talks in terms of scat and last meals, and her yucky-pooh-pooh days are over. Sometimes I wake to the sound of a bird off-key and realize she's imitating a whistle while getting ready for school.

She has brought her joy in nature home to us, in the most colorful way: with bird feeders and houses that now litter our garden. At breakfast we sometimes stop in the midst of our chaotic mornings and look and listen to these new feathered-friends. Cardinals, blue jays, and happy chickadees have entered our lives, not to mention a regular woodpecker that seems to work from 6 to 8 am on weekends. We recently caught the woodpecker pulling and destroying a sparrow's house on a tree in the garden. I was sure she would be upset about this, but she watched calmly as he pulled the finely crafted nest from the box. With an air of nonchalance, she declared, "Thus, is the life of birds, Momma!"

Nowadays, thanks to Sassafras, Francesca reads books while curled up in the sunlight, goes online to research an animal or bird — out of interest, not because anyone told her she must. When I see her enthusiasm and love of life, I might say there is a spiritual quality to what is being taught at Sassafras, embracing what sustains us, using simple gentle words like gratitude, and seeking silence — all in a very busy world.

Ms. Vanderhoop on June 10 leaves for two weeks in Haiti where, as part of the Green Haiti project, she will co-lead a workshop on reforestation, organic gardening, and trauma relief for teenagers in Legoane.

For details of the school-year camps and upcoming Sassafras summer camps, or if you would like to sponsor for Sassafras scholarship or donate to the Haiti project, please contact Saskia Vanderhoop at 508-645-2008 or saskiav@mac.com. Or refer to the website: www.sassafrasmvy.org.

Sonoma Valley, Ratna Ling retreat.

I recently went to visit my sister in California.  She owns an Inn, West Sonoma Inn, in Guerneville.  On Sunday morning we drove through King's ridge in Cazadero, a long twisty drive to the top with stunning views over Northern Sonoma. Ratna-ling is a retreat center, a 5-star resort accommodation serving the most amazing vegetarian food.  We arrived to practice an hour and a half of beginner yoga and have lunch, a fundraiser, all for the good of the local chamber of commerce in Guerneville. 

The class was led by a warm and happy girl, Chelsea. Her practice was all about opening the heart and lungs to breathe, gentle stretches and twists that loosen the body in a natural way.  The class was great, set in a soaring timber frame construction, cork floors with window seats and natural daylight. I left questioning myself as to why I didn't practice more, it makes you feel so good, so strong. Happy to be with my sister in this spiritual place. Gone were the demands of my three young children, the cleaning and taxi driving and cooking and tending to the busy schedules, gone too were the chaotic thoughts that fly by, crashing into each other, gone. Just stillness.

Designed to nourish the soul, Ratna Ling is run by volunteers, there is a daily sunrise practice of Tibetan yoga (kum Nye). They also provide all the basics such as wi-fi for keeping in touch with work or family, (or not) as the needs be.

We ate on a sun-filled patio over looking the redwoods and hills. The food was fantastic and you couldn't help but feel refreshed and rejuvenated and wanting to return for more. There is a stillness to the air, a peace.  They have a binary to reproduce the Tibetan works that are being destroyed over the last 40 years by the Chinese.  It has heart and it has silence, it really pulls you in and you find yourself wondering how you could volunteer, just to be there, to sit, to breathe to stretch or to simply think, or not, to clear your thoughts, on a weekly/monthly basis. Ratna Ling offers an olive branch of peace in your mind.

Peace within our minds is the only true refuge. - Tarthang Tulku

The Parson Jones, the tallest tree in the Armstrong woods.

Visit Ratna Ling at www.ratnaling.com -  and check out the pictures.