AmeriCorps Housing
Dear Editor: Readers, imagine yourself at 22 years old, freshly graduated from college and eager to explore the world. As your graduation approaches you explore options and decide on a year of AmeriCorps service in a faraway place called Sheet’ka (Sitka) Alaska.
You are seeking adventure, new experiences, and the chance to do some good in the world, because at that age you remain idealistic.
Navigating your way through a lengthy and bureaucratic process, you finally arrive in Sitka Alaska. You are overwhelmed by the beauty and the differences. You embrace change and begin service at your host site knowing little about what that will entail aside from what you have read online and learned from the AmeriCorps Program director.
You quickly realize that Sitka and Alaska have entrenched and systemic problems you will not be able to address during your 1,700-hour commitment to service. You also quickly realize that everyone around you is earning three times what you are earning for the same amount of effort. Your $1,500 a month is not enough to subsist upon, and you spend any savings. The State of Alaska SNAP (food stamps) system is hopelessly backed up. Health care coverage is tricky to navigate and expensive. You walk to and from your service site daily and realize that yes, Xtratufs are necessary. You have left your support network and comfort zone.
Yet, you persist. Why? Because you made a commitment, and the relationships you have created at your service site are meaningful. The community is welcoming and surrounded by stunning natural beauty. And you believe in serving others.
This is the condition of each AmeriCorps member here in Sitka.
The service AmeriCorps members provide to the community cannot be measured; I have tried. It is the important yet intangible work of building, connecting, and sustaining. It supports K-12 youths across Sitka. Have your kids been tutored in math, ran cross-country, participated in Girls on the Run, received services from Sitka Counseling, visited the Cloud Teen Center or joined Mock Trial or Afterschool Explorers? Are you an adult receiving SUD services? Seven of 12 members plan to serve with the City and Borough of Sitka Parks and Recreation department over the summer. This is a tiny sampling of the kinds of projects that AmeriCorps members support.
AmeriCorps programs across the state of Alaska and the nation are unable to find housing for their AmeriCorps Program members and programs are disappearing. I am fortunate to be able to house AmeriCorps members in the Sitka Fine Arts Campus over the Fall and Winter, however the campus is in use over the summer for the Fine Arts Camp. The efforts of staff at MEHS to house AmeriCorps members over the summer are at a standstill and summer approaches quickly.
All this to say, I am asking you to consider housing an AmeriCorps member for the period from May 15 through July 15. Members can afford $450 per month from their monthly living allowance of $1,500 per month. There is no expectation that you feed the members. AmeriCorps members undergo a four-part background check to be eligible for service. There are two males and eight females.
Thank you for your longstanding support of the Sitka AmeriCorps Program.
Sarah Joan Lawrie
lawries@sitkaschools.org
Sitka AmeriCorps Program Director
Diesel Exhaust Pollution
Dear Editor: Please go to the following URL address and read this portion of PLAW 109-Subtitle C-Clean School Buses.
Sec. 741. clean school bus program.
Sec. 742. diesel truck retrofit and fleet modernization program https://www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus
School buses are a problem, but mitigating policies can be implemented immediately. For example, prohibit idling of the engines while loading and unloading children, provide air filters at the entrances, nearby rooms, and heating intake vents at the school.
However, this does not address a unique Sitka problem. The school buses are only present twice a day. But, the cruise ship tour buses drive back and forth through the Blatchley School zone for hours. On April 8, 2024, the first cruise ship (Norwegian Bliss), docked at the Sitka Cruise Terminal and the tour buses began concentrating diesel fuel exhaust toxins as they traveled to downtown Sitka (approximately seven miles one way).
I personally counted every single bus that passed Blatchley Middle School and drove through the roundabout. I counted 280 bus trips that day for seven hours from 10:32 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The average time between buses was 1.5 minutes. This constitutes an unprecedented concentration of diesel exhaust pollution in a seven-mile two-lane traffic corridor. I doubt that this occurs anywhere else on Earth. It is poisoning every resident and business along this traffic corridor. But it is particularly onerous inasmuch as it adversely impacts the health of children while they attend school. See: https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/how-air-pollution-is-destroying-our-health/children-and-air-pollution.
I have recently sent emails regarding this problem to the CBS Assembly, the CBS School Board, and the Sitka School District. I received only one single response: Deidre Jenson, assistant superintendent, Sitka School district – ‘‘Thank you for sharing your concern. We’ll continue to be looking for and evaluating opportunities to improve this.’’ Silence and platitudes.
In addition, this bus traffic is risking physical injury to our children as they play at the outdoor basketball court, ball field, on campus during lunch, and at Moller Park. They are next to a freeway for seven hours each school day.
So far, Sitkans have sat blithely by and have allowed the cruise ship industry to do this to us. No one I know is anti-tourism. But, this is unconscionable. We’re sacrificing our children for profit. If we don’t do something now, we’ll never be forgiven, nor will we ever forgive ourselves. It must stop this now or we can sit by for the next cruise ship season (April to October) and hope.
Dr. Ronald E. Dick, Sitka
SEARHC Infusion Dept.
Dear Editor: I would like to acknowledge and highly recommend the Infusion Department at SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center here in Sitka.
The infusion department is run by Teresa Remington, R.N., who does an amazing job navigating the complexities of chemo/anti-cancer drugs and other infusion’s that might be necessary for people to have. The department is also staffed with competent, caring nurses Frankie Bacon, Hannah Palof Mudry, Camilla Pfeiffer, Jen Alley and Kat Richards.
I feel Sitka is blessed to have this caliber of an infusion center available right here to our citizens, allowing residents to avoid some costly trips off the island for infusions elsewhere.
Thank you, SEARHC Infusion Department!
Deanna Rogers Bennett, Sitka
First Cruise Ship
Dear Editor: It breaks my heart the manner in which our first cruise ship passengers of 2024 were treated at the roundabout.
I hope these narrow minded people are never treated in such a rude manner when they travel. Embarrassed for Sitka,
Lorraine Inez Lil, Sitka
