Andy’s Old Port Pub is locally famous for having music every night of the week. Owners and Great Diamond Island residents Rick Frantz and Jennifer Fox’s support music draws performers from all over the state, country and occasionally beyond.

In 1987, long before “public/private ventures” became fashionable, L.L.Bean issued a small grant to create a Maine Island Trail Association, in partnership with the Maine Department of Conservation and the Island Institute. With this, the grassroots Maine Island Trail Association (often known as “MITA”) and the Maine Island Trail were born.

The Casco Bay Lines company, which provides ferry service to the island, reports that for the period from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014, 675,044 passengers disembarked at Peaks. Casco Bay Lines carried a total of 946,184 passengers that year, with the approximately 300,000 others landing on Great Diamond, Cliff, Long or Chebeague islands, or staying aboard for the scenic cruises the company offers.

It's not hard to make the case that substance abuse is a community problem. In island communities, its impacts may be greater, and the solutions more difficult.

It's early March as I write, and snow is still piled up to the crotch of the pin cherry tree. But you may be reading this in early April, and I hope you'll permit me to do a little fantasizing about what it might be like, a month from now.

Ian Watkins is​ an Island Fellow, a participant in a two-year service program operated by AmeriCorps and the Island Institute, doing community development work on islands and remote coastal communities. Watkins works on Deer Isle and the Downeast coast with high school students. 

Sherry Bunin worked in the publishing industry all her life, but it wasn't until late in her career that her writing was published. She started out as an English major at the University of Cincinnati and while student, took a job at Writer's Digest where she was in charge of an annual short story contest.

Charlotte Goodhue stands at the entrance to her pasture surrounded by a gaggle of local children ranging in age from 12 down to the earliest walker, all abuzz with anticipation. Goodhue raises the soup pot she holds in her hand, bangs it with a sturdy wooden spoon, and the children take off at a dead run.

On one night in February, low tide and an overabundance of ice chunks at Islesford prevented the commuter boat from being able to land. I never realized how much I count on my freedom to come and go as a coping mechanism for an island winter. Whenever the weather caused a boat cancelation I was peeved, even if I wasn't planning to go off the island that day! I was exasperated that the weather had once again taken away my choice.