I was a summer person for 63 years and now I’ve lived on Vinalhaven year-round for seven. I am surprised, amused, and sobered by how my view of summer people has evolved since retiring here. Don’t worry, any summer people reading this; it’s not all bad.
Summer people come in different flavors. For most of those 60 years I was the kind who came for a couple weeks, stayed in a family house dazed by the natural beauty of the island, and enjoyed relaxed gatherings in the cove and picnics on nearby beaches. Vinalhaven was a magical place seemingly too perfect to be real. I’d fill my camera and try to soak up every detail in my head to bring home. Vacationland. The way life should be.
I have come to realize I was not the best kind of summer person. Not a bad person, exactly, but not the best. I thought little of what it takes—the work, the care, the volunteers, the decisions, the money, the government—for Vinalhaven to be what it is: a community. A lot of what visitors love is here thanks to volunteers, hard work, and donations.
Some summer people really do know the island. Some spend a big chunk of their time helping the library, picking up roadside trash, maintaining trails, organizing public events, being on town boards, helping the medical center, advising or fundraising for any of the many nonprofits on the island. Many summer people donate money to local groups. A few donate a lot. One summer person recently left over a million dollars to island organizations in her will. Some have donated anonymously for decades and hardly anyone knows about it.
Most summer people don’t do any of that. They come and go with a smile on their face and a serene indifference to the complex community they are enjoying. That indifference can be a little annoying. Many are here for a week or two of cocktail parties, picnics, a lunch in town, and then are gone. They may help local business a little, but Vinalhaven is like a resort for them.
Vinalhaven is not a resort. It is a community. It runs on volunteers. The town government alone has over 90 volunteer positions in all the committees, boards, and commissions that help the Select Board and town manager do their job, not to mention the fire department and the ambulance! There are always too many vacancies. It’s a struggle sometimes just keeping the island running. The many nonprofits on the island use at least that many volunteers (many of them summer people): Meals on Wheels, Fuel Fund, Celebration Committee, Island Village Childcare, Eldercare Services, Community Outreach, Community Development Partnership, Historical Society, Food Pantry, Land Trust, Housing Initiative. I could go on.
Once you become aware, your attitude towards the summer person who only sees the island as an escape, a blissful paradise, changes. You view those who breeze in and breeze out—while the rest of us help keep the show on the road—differently.
And the summer people who don’t contribute but who complain: you are on thin ice. “The cashier was rude to me.” “I was only two minutes late and a rude ferry person sent me to the end of the line.” “Why can’t they be open every day?” “The medical center is a joke.” “No one in the town office could help.” There will always be things to complain about, but if you are enjoying the island without contributing, you might be making a bad impression. (And just paying taxes is not enough.) “Ask not what this community can do for you. Ask what you …” You know the rest.
Every spring I do look forward to seeing the many friends who come for some or all of the summer. They are good people and wonderful, but after living here year-round for seven years, I can’t help seeing everyone through a filter: How well do you know and understand the island? Do you sometimes help the island? Do you contribute? If you don’t, I understand; I used to be like you. But now I know better and maybe now you do, too. If you do help, if you contribute in any way no matter how small, you get a lot of “brownie points” in my book.
Banner Moffat moved full-time to Vinalhaven in 2019 after working as a code enforcement officer in California. He has served on the island’s Planning Board and Budget Committee, and tries to help in other ways.
