Editing Tangier, Virginia (section)

==Institutions and culture==
The Tangier Island Health Foundation<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tangierclinic.org/|title=Tangier Island Health Foundation |year=2014 |access-date=August 11, 2018}}</ref> runs the Nichols Health Center on Tangier, which is operated by the Riverside Health System,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.riversideonline.com/Foundation/Tangier-Island.cfm |title=Our Commitment to the People of Tangier Island|website=Riverside Health System }}</ref> which also operates on the [[Eastern Shore of Virginia]] and in [[Hampton Roads]].

Historically, there were two cases of [[Tangier disease]], a recessive genetic disorder that causes high blood cholesterol. These two instances represented the first ever discovery of the disease. Thus, the disease was subsequently named after the island. There are very few residents with this genetic anomaly who currently live on the island.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://esvhs.blogspot.com/2014/04/tangier-islanders-make-medical-history.html |title=Tangier Islanders Make Medical History| last=Fournier |first=Arthur |date=April 2, 2014 |website=History Between the Waters }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/tangier-disease |title=Tangier Disease |website=U.S. National Library of Medicine }}</ref>

The residents of Tangier enjoy regular cable television and internet access through a [[Microwave transmission|microwave tower]] installed in spring 2010. There are phone lines on the island. One physician assistant and a number of registered nurses live on the island. David Nichols treated residents for thirty years, piloting a Cessna 182 or Robinson helicopter for once-a-week visits.<ref name=Miller2010>{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Alyssa J. |title=Tangier Island doctor's legacy lives on |url=http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2010/December/30/Tangier-Island-doctors-legacy-lives-on |date=December 30, 2010 |publisher=Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association |access-date=April 14, 2015}}</ref> In January 2007, he was profiled by [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] ''[[World News with Diane Sawyer|World News Tonight]]'' as its Person of the Week.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/PersonOfWeek/story?id=2808883 |title=Person of the Week: David Nichols |date=January 19, 2007 |publisher=ABC News |access-date=February 18, 2010}}</ref> Nichols died at the age of 62 on December 30, 2010, after a battle with cancer. Four months earlier, a new clinic was christened in his name, as he and a few others had raised funds for its construction.<ref name=Miller2010 /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/dec/30/dr-david-nichols-tangier-islands-angel-dies-ar-743893/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101031118/http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/dec/30/dr-david-nichols-tangier-islands-angel-dies-ar-743893/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 1, 2011 |title=Dr. David Nichols, Tangier Island's angel, dies |newspaper=Times-Dispatch |location=Richmond, Virginia |date=December 30, 2010 |access-date=September 22, 2012}}</ref> Emergency patients travel by helicopter to [[Crisfield, Maryland|Crisfield]] or [[Salisbury, Maryland|Salisbury]] hospitals in Maryland. Although the island has one operational power plant, it is used mainly for emergencies. Power comes in from the Eastern Shore of Virginia through an underwater cable.

[[File:SwainMemorialUMC.jpg|thumb|left|Swain Memorial United Methodist Church]]
[[Methodism]] has been and remains a very strong influence on Tangier, stemming from the charismatic preaching and revival camp meetings held there in the early 1800s by Joshua Thomas, the famed "parson of the islands." Because of their ties to the Northern Methodist Church, Tangier residents in the 19th century did not support slavery and did not join Virginia in seceding from the Union during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Unique Speak |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/unique-speak/ |website=[[National Geographic]] |access-date=27 January 2025}}</ref>

A local ordinance prohibits the sale of alcohol, making the island "dry." In 1999, the Tangier town council blocked [[Warner Brothers]] from using the island to film the [[Kevin Costner]] film ''[[Message in a Bottle (film)|Message in a Bottle]]'', objecting to the script's drinking, profanity, and sex.<ref name="blakely2010" />

=== Education ===
[[Accomack County Public Schools]] operates the [[Tangier Combined School]], the sole comprehensive K–12 public school in the Commonwealth of Virginia. {{Asof|2018}}, it had 60 students.<ref name="SwiftTrump">{{cite magazine|author=Swift, Eric|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/19/tangier-island-donald-trump-2016-219349|title=The Doomed Island That Loves Trump|magazine=[[Politico Magazine]]|date=August 19, 2018|access-date=August 19, 2018}}</ref>