Daily Sitka Sentinel

July 22, 2015 Community Happenings

MEHS Student

Attends Workshop

A Mt. Edgecumbe High School student, Alexa Gray, is among 57 high school students from 21 Alaska communities participating in the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program Acceleration Academy this week on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus.

Students earn credit toward a college degree and learn about career opportunities that exist in science, technology, engineering and math fields. All expenses are paid for the five-week session.

As one of the many projects, students build, test and fly unmanned aerial vehicles while following Federal Aviation Administration safety guidelines. 

 

Celebration to

Honor Pioneers

An Honoring Pioneers Celebration will be held 6-8 p.m. Friday, July 24, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 105 Shotgun Alley.

A talent show and potluck dinner are  included. The public is invited ot attend. For more information call 738-0534.

 

Harp Sing Set

The Fourth Sunday Sitka Sacred Harp Sing is set 3:30-5 p.m. July 26 at the Sitka Pioneers Home Chapel. If sunny, the group will sing on the porch. Beginners and listeners are invited. Call 738-2089 for more information.

 

 

Library Panel Meets

The City and Borough of Sitka’s Library Commission will meet 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5, on the second floor of the Kettleson Memorial Library’s temporary location at 831 Lincoln Street.

Probable topics include the results of July’s public survey concerning a possible library name change; an update on the recent move to the Alaska Joint Library Consortium; the Summer Reading program; other recent and upcoming library programming; and the reduction in library operating hours.

The public is invited to attend.  For further information, contact Robb Farmer at 747-8708 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

 

Library Surveys

Name Change

Those wanting to voice opinions about the possible name change of Kettleson Memorial Library are invited to take a survey through the end of July.

The Library Commission will discuss the results of the survey at its August  meeting. The survey can be accessed electronically from either the library website or the City and Borough of Sitka Facebook page. Paper copies of the survey are available at the library circulation desk.  For further information, contact Robb Farmer at 747-8708 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  

 

 

Letter Writing

Class Thursday

Sitka Fellow and fiction writer D.J. Theilke will host a workshop on letter writing 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday, July 23, in Fraser Hall on the SJ Campus.

The event is by donation, and no experience is required. The Sitka Fellows program is sponsored by the Island Institute and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp.

 

Hospitalist

Joins Staff

At SEARHC

Hospitalist Dr. Kimberly Capp, D.O., has joined the medical team at SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital.

Capp began work at the consortium on Monday, filling a position that has been vacant for some time.

She earned her medical degree at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, Pennsylvania, and is board certified in both internal medicine and pediatrics. She graduated with honors from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, with a bachelor of arts degree in foreign languages and a bachelor of science degree in biology.

Capp practiced as a rural primary care physician in a clinic setting as well as provided home visits for seniors for the past five years in Seaside, Oregon.

Her husband, Trenton, was raised in Juneau where his family still lives. They see the move to Sitka as a means of Capp’s  returning to hospital medicine and returning the family to Southeast.

Capp enjoys kayaking, swimming, crafting with her kids, and the practices of yoga and mindful meditation; she and her husband are science fiction and fantasy fans. Currently, Trenton stays home with their two children and is a studio potter who practices in the traditions of Bernard Leach and Sumi art painting. Their 10-year-old daughter, Maia, is an active child and an avid nature buff with an interest in marine sciences. Six-year-old Naomi is a social butterfly who loves berry picking, dressing up, and socializing with kids and adults alike.

“SEARHC is extremely pleased to have a physician with Dr. Capp’s skills and expertise joining our team,” Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital Administrator Jeff Prater said.

 

Fellows Program Writer

To Talk On Art of Letters

 

D.J. Thielke. (Photo provided)

Houston-based writer D.J. Thielke, here through the Sitka Fellows Program to work on a short story collection and a novel, will honor a more intimate letter-writing form Thursday. The workshop will be 7 p.m. in Fraser Hall, the building closest to the SJ Museum on the campus lawn. 

Drawing inspiration from exceptional historic letters, Thielke will investigate the nature of letter writing. Thielke believes that “You don’t get to edit when you’re handwriting a letter, and those failures really demonstrate personality and contribute to that sense of intimacy.” In the spirit of that idea, Thielke will provide envelopes at the workshop to get the letters into the mail immediately.

The workshop is open to all, regardless of experience. Admission is by donation. 

In her own work, Thielke says that she has “focused on the role of technology on identity in modern life – the way individuals are able to curate others’ perception of them through intentional and subconscious manipulation of social media, and the potential for bullying in online anonymity – and I am currently finishing and editing a collection of stories that focuses on this theme.” One of those stories, an account of a Texas oil rig worker transferring to the Scottish rigs in the North Sea, has outgrown the short story format and will be a particular focus for Thielke in her time here. 

At the conclusion of the fellowship at the end of August, Thielke will assume her role as the 2015-2016 Olive B. O’Connor Fellow in Fiction at Colgate University.

The Sitka Fellows Program, now in its fourth year, is a multidisciplinary group residency program which offers time and space to six emergent artists, thinkers, and entrepreneurs from across the country and around the world to develop their personal projects. Each week features a workshop by one of Fellows, and the program will culminate in an Open Studio event Aug. 22 where the fellows will demonstrate their work. 

The program is coordinated by the Island Institute in partnership with the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, and is made possible through donations from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Art Works program, David and Marge Steward, Seamart Quality Foods, and many individual donors.  

 

For more information, visit www.iialaska.org or call 747-3794.