March 6, 2015 Community Happenings

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Created on Friday, 06 March 2015 09:33

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Volunteers Sought

On SJ Campus

The Sitka Fine Arts Camp will host a volunteer day on the SJ Campus 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, March 7, in front of Whitmore Hall.

A hot lunch will be provided at noon in Sweetland S100. All are welcome to join at any time, and no experience is necessary. Call the Sitka Fine Arts Camp office at 747-3085, or write to Jacob Peterson, SFAC Volunteer Coordinator, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

SEARHC Offers Advice On

Dealing with Colorectal Cancer

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium  encourages everyone to talk with their medical provider about prevention and screening.

Colorectal cancer (cancer of the colon or rectum, also referred to as colon cancer) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in Alaska, but it is also one of the easiest cancers to prevent with a healthy lifestyle and appropriate screening. The early stages of colorectal cancer have few symptoms, which makes screening extremely important. Precancerous polyps, small growths in the colon, can be detected before they become cancer, and are easily removed during screening, SEARHC said.

Colorectal cancer is usually found in people age 50 or older, but it may turn up in younger people as well. The risk for colorectal cancer is higher for people who have a family history of colorectal cancer or bowel diseases as well as those that are obese or consume diets with a lot of red meat or processed foods.

Statistics said that heavy alcohol use, tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke may also increase one’s risk. Colorectal cancer also ranks among the leading causes of death for Alaska Natives, who are twice as likely to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer as non-Natives. Screening for Alaska Native people should begin at age 40.

For more information about colorectal cancer and whether you should be screened, please contact the SEARHC Colorectal Cancer Screening Program at (907) 364-4450 or talk to a medical provider.

City to Offer

Bid Training

The City and Borough of Sitka will soon transition to www.bidexpress.com for all solicitations.

Potential bidders must first register at www.bidexpress.com and create an info tech digital identification to review and download bid documents.

Free training will be provided 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 24, in the third floor conference room at City Hall, 100 Lincoln Street. Those with questions or wishing to register for the training may call 747-1882 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Unitarians Meet

Sunday’s Unitarian Fellowship program will be a conversation about how the media have created a culture of violence, its impact on children, and the positive and negative effects of video games.

Fellowship begins at 10:30 a.m., with the program beginning at 10:45. A children’s program is provided. Soup and bread follows the program at noon. The Fellowship Hall is located at 408 Marine Street, with parking behind off Spruce Street.

ANS to Meet

A regularly scheduled meeting of the Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 4 will be 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 10,  at the ANB Founders Hall.

Members and those interested in joining are being encouraged to attend.

MEHS Group

To Present Works

Writers Read will present the Mt. Edgecumbe High School Creative Writing Group 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, at the Yaw Chapel.

The public is invited to hear them perform their original writing and get a taste of what teenagers from across the state are thinking about and working on in their literary art.

The event is open to everyone and free, although donations are appreciated. Treats will be provided. Contact Peter Bradley at the Island Institute with questions at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

SCVB to Meet

The Sitka Convention and Visitors Bureau board of directors will meet  noon Tuesday, March 10, at Centennial Hall.

Questions can be directed to the SCVB at 747-5940 or emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Story Time Set

Kettleson Memorial Library will have ‘‘A Wee Bit of Irish Magic’’ 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 12.

Books about leprechauns, songs, literary activities and a craft project will be part of the program. 

The event is for preschool ages and their caregivers, but everybody is welcome. For more information, call the library at 747-8708.

Raffle to Benefit

Senior Center

The Swan Lake Senior Center, 402 Lake Street, is selling raffle tickets to help support its senior meals program.

Tickets cost $10 each or 10 tickets for $90 and are available at the center, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at Murray Pacific. Volunteers will be selling tickets at local grocery stores on Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Prizes are: two Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air unrestricted coach-class systemwide tickets valued at $2,500; set of angel ornaments, made by Windsong Designs, valued at $75; and freshwater pearl earrings, made by S.M. Koval, valued at $50.

The senior center serves hot and nutritionally balanced meals to seniors five days at the center. Meals also are delivered to seniors who are home-bound. 

The drawing will be held at the center at noon on June 12. The winner need not be present to win.

‘Kayaking’ Topic

Of Presentation

Kettleson Memorial Library at the Stratton welcomes Gail Ferris 3 p.m. Sunday, March 15.

Ferris will present images and recollections of her experiences kayaking around the glaciers of Greenland, “where the mountains meet the sea,” and the “water and ice are never the same twice,” she said.

Ferris has been a solo arctic expedition paddler since 1989, having also kayaked in places like Barrow and Baffin Island, Canada. The public is invited to attend. For more information,  contact Robb Farmer at 747-8708.

Frankenfish

Event, Movie

Slated in Sitka

Rep. Geran Tarr is kicking off a statewide week of events to help Alaskans learn more about what’s in their food.

A ‘‘Frankenfish Meets Frankenapple – Alaskans Deserve to Know What They’re Eating’’ event will be held 5:30 p.m. March 12 at the Coliseum Theater Downtown. The award-winning film ‘‘GMO OMG’’ will be screened. Sitkans will be given the chance to ask questions about genetically modified foods and labeling. 

“There’s nothing more basic than feeding your family,’’ Tarr said. ‘‘But in the strange, new world of genetically modified foods, do Alaskans really know what we’re eating?”

The House Resources Committee has scheduled a hearing on House Bill 92 at 1 p.m. on Monday, March 9. This is the first time the Legislature will discuss labeling for genetically modified food. 

Tarr introduced HB 92, legislation requiring labeling for genetically modified food products. Labeling of genetically modified foods is already required in Maine, Vermont and Connecticut. Legislation to require labeling is pending in 20 other states. 

Tarr said that for years, Alaska’s Congressional delegation has been leading the charge opposing the genetically modified salmon. 

‘‘This work has included introducing legislation to require labeling genetically modified salmon,’’ she said. “Nothing compares to wild, Alaskan salmon,’’ Tarr said. ‘‘If Frankenfish ever make it to markets, consumers nationwide need to know what they’re being asked to buy. Likewise, Alaskans deserve to know what’s in the food on our shelves at home.”  

Tarr represents the Anchorage neighborhoods of Airport Heights, Mountain View, and Russian Jack.

Events also will be held in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.

Dodge Ball Event

Benefits Boys BB

A community dodge ball tournament will be held 3:30-10 p.m. March 13 at Blatchley Middle School, with adult matches starting at 5 p.m.

The registration fee is $10 per player with a team maximum of five players. Registration is open at the Community Schools office. Prizes will be awarded to top adult and youth teams.

Concessions will be offered. All proceeds to benefit the Sitka boys basketball teams in grades 5-8 traveling to Juneau for a youth basketball tournament. Contact Kealoha Harmon at 738-0046 with questions. 

Harp Sing Set

The Second Sunday Sitka Sacred Harp Sing will be 3:30-5 p.m. March 8 at the Pioneers Home Chapel. Beginners and listeners are welcome. Call 738-2089 for more information.

Rofkar To be Awarded honorary doctorate by UAS

 Sitka artist Teri Rofkar will be presented with an honorary doctorate degree at the University of Alaska Southeast-Sitka Campus spring commencement ceremonies May 1.

UAS said Rofkar also will be the commencement speaker, and preside over an assemblage of ceremonial dancers wearing many of her robes.

“This will be the first occasion in historic time that this many of this type of robes will be dancing,” Rofkar said. 

Rofkar is known worldwide for her Northwest Coast arts – Ravenstail weaving, spruce-root and yellow cedar basketry, and her teaching and modeling of Tlingit cultural traditions.

“Teri has a long history with the university, sharing her art through classes and workshops for over two decades,’’ Marnie Chapman, professor of biology at UAS, said. ‘‘She has long been loved and appreciated in Sitka. It is gratifying to see how extensive the national and international recognition for her work has become – both as an artist and a scholar.”

“Teri has had tremendous impact in the arts world and is highly regarded for her weaving,’’ said Lulani Arquette, writing on behalf of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, Vancouver, Wash. ‘‘The sheer artistry of her weaving is breathtaking. The panel was captured not by the artistry alone or by Teri’s devotion to traditional processes, but by an accompanying academic work.”

They cited a depiction of the double helix of a DNA strand in one of her weaving projects, “In the process of producing a Chilkat blanket or robe, there is embedded a deep understanding ... lifelong learning about the habits of animals, the chemistry of wool dying, and the intricate mathematics of design – not to mention the cultural protocols ... that underscore a sense of ‘kinship to’ and not ‘dominion over’ the earth,’’ Arquette said.

‘‘Teri turns this dynamic on its head and begins to merge Native lifeways with scientific understanding,’’ Arquette said. ‘‘Beyond the profound artistic excellence, what the NACF Traditional Arts Fellowship celebrates in Teri’s projects is the deliberate analysis of the systematic complexities and sophistication of the weaving process in an academic setting. It is groundbreaking work.”

Expanding on this theme, Shannon Daut of the Alaska State Council of the Arts, said that “Teri is an innately interdisciplinary thinker. She sees complex relationships between Western science, traditional art practice, and indigenous knowledge systems. This is paired with a rare ability to fluently articulate these complex ideas through the execution of her creative work.”

In addition to countless baskets and other Northwest Coast artistic creations, Rofkar has woven 17 ceremonial Ravenstail’s robes thus far in her professional career. Each of those robes has been a labor of love that consumed upwards of 2,000 hours of her life. 

“To be authentic reflections of my ancestral traditions, each of these ceremonial garments requires deep conceptual work before I start weaving. What excites me most is the profound story and spiritual symbolism behind the designs,” Rofkar said.

Her weaving and basketry creations have been displayed at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, the Denver Art Museum, the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks, the Sitka National Historical Park, the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, the Field Museum in Chicago, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Spirit Wrestlers Gallery in Vancouver, B.C., the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, Fuller Museum in Boston, and the Denver Museum of Natural History, among others.

For the festivities surrounding this honor, several of her works will be released from their exhibits so they can travel to Sitka to be at UAS for the special dance when she receives her award.

In 2003 Rofkar was invited by the Smithsonian Institution to be a Visiting Scholar and in 2004 won the Governor’s Award for Alaska Native Art. In 2009 she was recognized by the National Endowment of the Arts as a National Heritage Fellow (“Living Treasure”), and in 2013 won the Rasmuson Award for Distinguished Artist of the Year and the 2013 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Traditional Arts Fellowship.

The 2015 UAS Sitka Campus Commencement Exercises will be held at the Odess Theater in Allen Hall on the Sheldon Jackson Campus 7-9 p.m. Friday, May 1. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend. Tickets are available online at https://www.eventjoy.com/e/uas-sitka-commencement-2006109 Refreshments will be served to all attendees following the ceremony. 

For more information, contact Owen Kindig, Public Information Officer of UAS. 747-7767 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. \

‘Herring Hop’ :

Cape Decision Dinner Dance Fundraiser

The Cape Decision Lighthouse Society invites the public to the annual Herring Hop dinner dance fundraiser 5:30 p.m. ‘‘until we drop’’ on March 28 at the ANB Founders Hall, to celebrate the return of the herring, and to raise funds for the window restoration project at the former U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse on southern Kuiu Island in the month of May.

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. to browse the pre-dance silent dessert auction. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. Dancing will follow around 7 p.m. to the live music of local classic rock-and-roll band Slack Tide.

All are invited “to enjoy an evening of old-fashioned family fun, visit with friends and neighbors, rub elbows with local fishermen and swap stories, and ‘cut it up’ on the dance floor to help the society with the upcoming summer historic preservation project,’’ the society said.

The society was awarded a State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources Office of History and Archaeology grant to accomplish window restoration work this May, and is recruiting volunteers for a one-or two-week stay at the lighthouse for the work party. Food, shelter and most of the transportation cost will be provided by CDLS. 

The dinner menu includes locally caught Sea Daddy’s tempura fish and chips, Kari’s famous cole slaw, Dick’s BBQ baked beans extraordinaire, and root beer floats, for a suggested donation of $15 for adults, $10 seniors and students, $5 children 12 and under, and free for children 3 and under.

Dinner-dance tickets can be purchased at Old Harbor Books starting on March 17, or at the door. Organizers encourage people to get tickets early as the ANB Founders Hall has a limited capacity. 

Organizers ask that fishermen who are able to donate fish – yellow eye, rockfish or halibut – contact Bill Grant at Sitka Sound Seafoods, or Dave Newman at Seafood Producers Cooperative. They will keep it for the event.

Any business or individual who would like to contribute a dessert for the silent auction can call Brandon at 738-1392. Those who can volunteer at the Hop, or the lighthouse, can call Karen at 747-7803.

The Lighthouse Society has completed many historic preservation projects since 1997 to restore the lighthouse with its 214-acre Lighthouse Reserve to accommodate the visiting public.

CDLS will have an information table at the Herring Hop to become or renew a membership. Mugs, prints, postcards, CDs and new hoodies and T’s with Rebecca Poulson woodblock on front, and ball caps will be available. Anyone interested in participating in the May work party at the lighthouse, or joining the 501 (c) 3 nonprofit Cape Decision Lighthouse Society, can find information at capedecisionlight.org and on Facebook.

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