By Nancy Beal

Nearly 100 well-wishers gathered last Friday night in the Beals Elementary School gym to celebrate Beals’ centennial anniversary in what was billed by the event’s organizers as an evening of “Refreshments and Recollections.”

Islanders had been encouraged to share relics of the past, and a table stretching from one end of the gym’s regulation-size basketball court to the other was filled with exhibits ranging from Beals High School basketball uniforms to personal items and remembrances of successfully fighting for a bridge to the mainland.