Sitka Vigil Saturday for Lives Lost in 2024

Details

Category: News

Created on Friday, 06 December 2024 15:21

Hits: 840

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Weighed by tragedies of the past year, two Sitkans have helped arrange a community vigil Saturday for those experiencing grief.
    “If we can celebrate and come together and have happy times, we need to be able to come together and mourn and say that we are hurting, and clearly be authentic about that,” said Sitkan Nalani James, one of the organizers.

Nalani James, left, and Paul Rioux stand on the UAS ramp and hold pages of photographs of Sitkans who have died in the past year. The two are organizing a community vigil Saturday for those experiencing grief. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

   The event is 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the University of Alaska Southeast boat ramp.
    “We’re inviting the whole community to come out and we’ll have a few quick speakers, a music component, and clergy on hand for folks who want some type of prayer time,” said Paul Rioux, a Sitka tradesman who is on the planning team.
    Candles are welcome at the outdoor vigil, as are hot beverages, although some will be supplied by organizers. Folks are welcome to place photos and memorabilia of loved ones along the ramp barricades, and Sea Mart has donated flowers to place in the channel.
    Organizers are asking attendees to leave dogs at home, and not to bring alcohol, tobacco or other substances not allowed on the UAS campus.
    Local musicians Joe Montagna and Jen Reid will perform during the event; and Rioux and Kathryn Winslow, from Brave Heart Volunteers, will talk briefly. BHV provides grief support, among other services.
    “It’ll be a short program,” said Rioux, whose family is connected to some of the traumatic accidents and deaths in the past year.
    The prompt for Rioux to start working with James was the F/V Wind Walker boating accident in Icy Strait early Sunday. The five men aboard and their boat are still missing.
On December 3, just after the Wind Walker accident, Rioux posted on Facebook:
    “We have had a lot of really tragic losses this year ... Someone (James) suggested a community gathering was needed and that resonated with me. I’m thinking about this coming Saturday afternoon.” He posted a few ideas for the gathering, most of which will be part of the event.
    An additional post came the following day: “There will be a short program and clergy on hand, but mostly it will be a space to come together.”
    James, who owns Bayside Tours and Airport Shuttle, and a Baker Cup business, walks in different circles from Rioux but the two were of one mind when it came to the purpose of the event, and the idea of the strength of community.
    James said, “I used to watch Mr. Rogers growing up and he was like the cornerstone of what I believe a community should be. There were many conversations within the show about celebrating and nuances where they talked about mourning. I’d like to say if we are a community that celebrates together – with food and other aspects – then we can be a community that mourns as well.”
    The official post of the announcement invites “those feeling grief from Sitka’s string of tragedies over the past year.”
    Rioux, in talking to the Sentinel cited boating accidents, suicides and other sudden deaths that have touched hundreds if not thousands in the community.
    James pictures the event as a chance to connect with others, whether it be spiritual group, cultural background, age or gender, to find support or maybe make plans for the future, to connect again and continue supporting one another.
    “Having conversations about mental wellness and mental health to where it’s not a taboo conversation, there is not a stigma to it, without caution and judgment,” James said. “There needs to be some sort of outward conversation... Coming out of it, I’m hoping the nonprofits can have group conversations with all different age groups as a preventative measure to many of these things that have plagued this community.”
    One of the only planned speakers, BHV program manager Kathryn Winslow, plans to talk for about five minutes, building off a poem by Carol B. McMullen Webb, who addresses the affect on loved ones after loss:
    “A hole is punched in my heart when a loved one dies
And I have survived countless of these piercings.
Around those holes, however, shuttle-like memories
Gather and weave precious patterns ...”
    “Everyone here is hurting, we are connected, tatted like lace,” Winslow told the Sentinel, reading from part of her draft speech. “The holes in our heart do not go away and neither does the love.”

• < Prev
• Next >