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☀️ Winter Flights are Coming Back

☀️ Winter Flights are Coming Back

Plus: Rallying around the Jelly Man

Cape Coddah
September 04, 2026

Good morning Cape Cod. For year-rounders, this is the weekend we've been quietly counting down to. September on the Cape is a gift. Get ready to unwrap it!

In this week’s Cape Coddah:

Living the Cape League dream
The magic of Camp Jabberwocky
Events and live music

Let’s get to it.

✈️ Winter Flights Are Coming Back

After years of losing its winter air link to Boston, Provincetown is bringing it back, at least for a trial run.

Cape Air had dropped six months of winter flights in late 2024, calling them financially unsustainable without a town subsidy. But voters rejected a permanent $332,000 property tax hike to cover it back in April.

The fix came from state Sen. Julian Cyr, who secured a $150,000 earmark from the "millionaire's tax." The town paired it with a narrowly approved $70,000 from reserves to fund a one-year pilot. Winter tickets will run $109, and each seat sold shrinks the town's cost.

Cape Air will fly a four-roundtrip weekly schedule this winter, mixing weekdays and weekends. The town's also chasing $910,000 in federal funds to keep flights going longer. Read more»

⚾️ Living the Cape League Dream

Harvard sophomore Luca Alagheband spent his summer playing for the Orleans Firebirds, calling it something he'd dreamed of since high school, when he watched so many phenomenal players pass through the Cape League.

For over a century, Cape Cod has been the summer home for college baseball's brightest talent, with more than 1,000 players going on to the pros. But what makes it special, Alagheband says, isn't just the competition. It's the people. The fans packed on the hill at Eldredge Park, the host families, the volunteers who pour their time into it.

He's proud to follow former Harvard teammates who pitched in Orleans and got drafted. The league expects players to give back, too. His favorite moment? Reading to kids at Snow Library, who look up to these players. Read more»

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🪕The Magic of Camp Jabberwocky

Camp Jabberwocky, the oldest running sleepaway camp for people with disabilities in the country, celebrated another summer on Martha's Vineyard, where music has always been at the heart of the experience.

Founded in 1953 by Helen "Hellcat" Lamb, the camp was radical for its time, built on the belief that people with disabilities deserved a summer of adventure and friendship rather than limitations. Seven decades later, her great-grandson Joe Kovac helped carry the legacy forward, performing a benefit concert in August that raised over $1,100.

Each summer, the Vineyard Haven camp welcomes more than 150 campers of all ages, many returning for decades. Tuition is free and counselors volunteer, so it leans on the community to keep going. As one longtime director put it, it's magical because everyone is equal. Read more»

📸 Sam Savage |📍Shore Rd, Chatham

Tag @thecapecoddah to get your photos in the Coddah!

💵 Chatham Adopts a Tax Break for Locals

Chatham's select board voted 4-1 Tuesday to adopt a 20% residential tax exemption, aimed at easing the burden on year-round homeowners by shifting some of it onto nonresident owners.

Here's how it works. The exemption knocks about $354,000 off the taxable value of qualifying primary residences. A home at the average value saves roughly $1,000, with lower-valued homes saving the most. Nonresidents pay more.

It wasn't without pushback. Critics, including the finance committee, called it too broad, unfair to seasonal owners, and wanted a delay for a more targeted approach. Supporters countered that it offers real, immediate relief, with one 90-year-old resident saying she's dipping into a home equity line just to pay her taxes.

October tax bills will reflect the change. Residents can apply through April. Read more»

Plover Not a Fighter

Nearly a year after escaping a boat fire near Naushon Island, Tyler Sullivan is sharing his story for the first time, recounting how he pulled his parents into freezing water and swam them 50 yards to safety, a rescue that came too late for his mother Cici.

On September 11, Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster will mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with free readings of "Bikeman," an epic poem by Harwich's Thomas Flynn, a former CBS journalist who biked toward the falling towers that morning and later shaped his harrowing firsthand account.

A new online tool called Cape Cod Outdoors gathers the region's beaches, trails, forests, and conservation lands into one interactive map, letting residents and visitors filter by activity, accessibility, and more, or hit "surprise me" to discover somewhere new.

🍓 Rallying Around the Jelly Man

For nearly two decades, Al Chisholm, known as "Al the Jelly Man," has been a beloved fixture at farmers' markets across the South Shore and Cape Cod, selling jams, jellies, and grilling sauces. Now his customers are rallying around him.

After a heart failure diagnosis, his nephew launched a GoFundMe to help cover mounting medical bills. It had raised about $5,600 as of Thursday.

Chisholm, 68, started Al's Backwoods Berrie Co. some 18 years ago after a hamstring injury cost him his trucking job, all while caring for his late wife. His raspberry jam took off, and he's since made as many as 20,000 jars a year by himself.

He's donated hundreds of cases over the years. Now the man who gave so much is on the receiving end. Read more»

14-year-old Stone Fornes reeled in what's believed to be the first cubera snapper ever caught from a Nantucket beach, a tropical fish that has no business being this far north, and the same young angler who set a world junior record with a 118-pound white marlin back in 2024.

A group of five Aquinnah Wampanoag women unveiled the Aquinnah Land Initiative, a nonprofit aiming to restore the tribe's relationship with land across Martha's Vineyard, starting with an $8M effort to purchase and steward the former Aquinnah Shop Restaurant property at the cliffs.

After a month on the lam, Snowdrop the pig, one of three that a Falmouth woman uses to clear invasive plants, was finally coaxed home on the Vineyard by a scrappy team wielding grain, corn husks, and belly scratches, arriving dehydrated and tick-covered but otherwise fine.

⚖️ A Truck, a Black Box, and No Arrests

New details have emerged in the unsolved hit-and-run death of Timothy DuVal, the 24-year-old Army veteran found dead on a Wellfleet road back in May 2025 while on vacation with friends.

Court records show police examined a black 2022 Chevrolet Colorado after its owner, through his attorney, contacted the DA's office saying he thought his truck might have been involved but didn't know what he'd struck. He handed it over voluntarily.

On the undercarriage, police found what appeared to be flesh, blood, hair, and fibers, with samples sent to the state crime lab. They also pulled data from the truck's systems. Notably, the black box showed a crash, but one that seemed to happen earlier than DuVal's death.

Over a year later, no arrests have been made. Read more»

👋 Meet: Bruno
🐾 Pit Bull Terrier
🎂 6 years old
♀︎ Male
Available to adopt at MSCPA-Cape Cod

FRIDAY - SEPTEMBER 4

Art & Craft Show @ Drummer Boy Park | 10 AM
Taste, Toast, Roast @ Wellfleet Pres. Hall | 4:30
First Fridays @ Orleans Village | 5 PM
Open Mic Night @ Wellfleet Library | 5 PM

SUNDAY - SEPTEMBER 6

AK Cody @ CC Winery | 12 PM
Munk Duane @ Flying Bridge | 1 PM
Matt Rich @ Love Farms | 1 PM
Thee Midnight Society @ Naukabout | 3 PM
Outer Cape Music Fest @ Wellfleet Pier | 4 PM
Tony Calla @ The Woodshed | 4 PM
Chris Richardson @ Chapin’s Bayside | 4 PM
Hitch @ Pilot House | 5 PM
Double Tracks @ Oliver’s & Planck’s | 5 PM
Alternatives @ Torino | 6 PM
Gatch @ Love Farms | 6 PM
Women Rock @ Cape Melody Tent | 7:30 PM
Full Sail @ Chapin’s Bayside | 8 PM
Soul Purpose @ Pilot House | 8 PM
Boston Naturals @ The Beachcomber | 9 PM
The Luff Kid @ The Woodshed | 9:30 PM
Juicebox @ Chatham Squire | 10 PM

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