Daily Sitka Sentinel

October 12, 2015 Community Happenings

Core Class Set

Core class, designed to improve functional strength and balance using provided free weights runs 5:15-6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Blatchley Middle School multipurpose room.

Participants may start any time as the first class is free with no obligation to sign up. Registration is open at the Community Schools office. Classes are $5 each. Call Community Schools at 747-8670 or visit www.SitkaCommunitySchools.com for more information.

Woodworking

Class Offered

Adult woodworking will be offered for at least 10 sessions Oct. 21-Dec. 10. Sessions will run 7-10 p.m. Wednesdays in the Blatchley Middle School wood shop, with some sessions on Saturdays and/or Sundays during inclement weather 1-4 p.m.

Participants should have some experience with woodworking tools and machines. The class is designed for people with projects needing a place to work. Ideas and techniques are available for those who may want them. Don Seesz and Greg Watchers will be supervising this course, which will cost $60 plus tax. Those with questions can call Seesz at 747-5998. Registration is open at Community Schools.

ANS Flea Market

Set for Oct. 17

The Alaska Native Sisterhood will host a flea market fundraiser 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 17 at the ANB Founders Hall.

Those who have yet to reserve a table are reminded that it’s not too late. 

The event is open to the public. The cost is $20 per table. Call Helen at 747-3410 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Sitka Lutheran

Offers Pies,

Quilts Oct. 18

Alaska Day Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. will find local folks gathered at Sitka Lutheran Church, 224 Lincoln Street, in the fellowship hall to enjoy a sweet treat pie or other dessert while warming up, drying off if needed, and catching up with friends. 

The annual pie sale funds energy conservation investment projects and other building improvements at Sitka Lutheran Church.

Upstairs on the main level, quilts and other handiwork will be offered for sale or silent auction bid.

Coordinators for the event are Kathleen Brandt, 747-6447, and Paulla Hardy, 747-6525.

Worship Service with Holy Communion is at 10:30 a.m.

Biathlon Tests Skill,

Endurance Saturday

Running speed and shooting accuracy will be targeted on Saturday morning, Oct. 17, when Sitka Sportsman’s Association sponsors its annual Alaska Day Biathlon at the north end of Halibut Point Road.

The race course begins at 10 a.m. Saturday from the indoor shooting range south of the ferry terminal. A mandatory pre-race safety clinic will review Biathlon rules, correct shooting positions, safety procedures, race strategy, and shooting practice time. Those clinics are offered at 7 p.m. on Thursday and 9 a.m. on Saturday.

The $15 entry fee covers use of the biathlon special .22 rim fire bolt action target rifle provided by the Sportsman’s Association along with all ammunition, hearing and eye protection, awards, and refreshments. Contests are planned for individuals age 14 or older, as well as teams of four. Beginners are welcome.

Biathlon organizers Foy Nevers and Elaine Strelow, 747-3469, may be contacted for more information.

Variety Show

To Show Talents

The stage at Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi will light up 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, as performers present the Alaska Day Festival Variety Show. Admission is $3 at the door.

Among the acts arranged by coordinators Sharyn Ferrick and John Ferrick are Sitka Spruce Celtic Dancers showing a western spring fling. Japanese violinist Megumi Fujita returns to enchant listeners. Sitka Studio of Dance will bring five ballet dances from the Nutcracker with local choreography. The international flavor continues with Irish influence in Ceoltori Band offering music of the people. Pioneer Mountain Boys promise some “old timey” instrumentals. More surprises come with the Ferrick staging in a setting rich with Tlingit cultural tradition.

Always an attention getter, men’s beards will be examined by judges from Sitka Emblem Club 142. Women’s bonnets will be judged by a team from Sitka Elks Lodge 1662. 

For more information, Sharyn Ferrick’s contact is 752-3111.

National History

Seminar Oct. 22

The 7 p.m. Oct. 22 Natural History seminar at UAS-Sitka Campus will feature Anne-Mathilde Thierry giving a talk titled “Conserving threatened arctic fox populations in Norway through captive breeding and reintroduction.”

The arctic fox is classified as highly endangered in Scandinavia and has almost disappeared from many mountain plateaus during recent decades, Thierry said. 

A captive breeding and reintroduction program, part of the national action plan to protect arctic fox populations in Norway, has been designed to re-establish and strengthen small populations of the endangered arctic fox. 

Thierry is the fall Scientist in Residency Fellow at the Sitka Sound Science Center and a scientist at the Department of Terrestrial Ecology of the Norwegian Institute for Natural Research. Her research focuses on responses of populations and ecosystems to changes in the environment, with special emphasis on the polar regions. Currently, she holds a postdoctoral fellowship at the Université du Québec á Rimouski.

Originally from Normandie, France, Thierry received her doctorate in ecology from the Université de Strasbourg, France in 2013, studying the physiological ecology of Adelie penguins.  Thierry’s current research centers on Arctic fox biology and ecology. Her research shapes the conservation and management efforts of arctic fox in Scandinavia.

Funding for the seminar series is provided by a grant to the Sitka Sound Science Center by the Sitka Alaska Permanent Charitable Trust. Those with questions may contact Kitty LaBounty at 747-9432 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Fiber Friends

To Meet Oct. 24

Fiber Friends, a gathering of weavers, spinners and dyers, will meet Saturday, Oct. 24th at Alice Johnstone’s house, 213 Shotgun Alley. All interested people are welcome. For more information, phone Alice at 747-3931.

Keystone Kops

Offer Comedy

For Alaska Day

Sitka’s version of the Keystone Kops are again out on the streets spreading good times and merriment while selling Alaska Day commemorative buttons for a $2 donation.

The squad, recruited by Jen Houx (738-1779), includes Rachel Ranke, Laurie Nesheim, Michelle Upcraft, Karoline Bekeris, Robin McNeilley, Julene Howard, Rebecca Britton, Shasta Fenwick, Lara Fluharty and Jamie Bails.

For those unfamiliar with the tradition, Keystone Kops regularly appeared in Mack Sennett’s silent-film slapstick farces from 1914 to the early 1920s. Encyclopedia Britannica describes them as an “insanely incompetent police force, dressed in ill-fitting, unkempt uniforms. They became enshrined in American film history as genuine folk-art creations whose comic appeal was based on a native irreverence for authority. What the Kops lacked in sense they made up for in zeal, as they dashed off to the chase on foot or drove off in a tin lizzie, in jerky, speeded-up tempo. Whether they collided with one another around corners or became entangled in clotheslines, ladders, or folding tents, their facial expressions of dour dignity never changed.”

Alaska Day Festival coordinators extended appreciation to the fundraising volunteers who were sworn in Friday by Alaska Public Safety Academy officer Jack LaBlanc.

BIHA to Meet

Baranof Island Housing Authority’s board of commissioners will meet 5 p.m. Oct. 20 at 245 Katlian Street.

The public is welcome to attend.