Bowl for Kids’ Sake
Dear Editor: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Alaska would like to thank the many donors and supporters of the Sitka Bowl for Kids’ Sake event held earlier in April at the Keet Gooshi Heen gym. The gym was a fun and exciting venue with teams representing First Bank, the Greater Sitka Arts Council, KGH teachers and families, the Ward Family, First National Bank of Alaska and friends of Bigs and Littles.
Thank you to the individuals and businesses of the community for supporting these teams with your donations. First Bank was the top fundraising team this year, followed closely by the Ward Family.
Each donation helps put more Sitka kids on the path of success.
The following businesses supported the event as corporate sponsors and we truly can’t thank them enough for their support of youth programs in Sitka. Their support helps us continue changing the lives of Sitka’s kids through the power of mentoring.
Lane Sponsors ($500 and above): Venneberg Insurance, First National Bank Alaska, Sitka Rotary Club, White’s Inc. and Sitka Moose Lodge 1350.
Pin Sponsors ($200 and above): Hames Corporation, Sitka Vision Clinic, Hard Rock Construction LLC., and in-kind donations from Harris Air, AC Lakeside and the Sitka Summer Music Festival.
Supporters ($100 and above): Agave Restaurant, Sitka Emblem Club 142, Christine Harrington and Sitka True Value (in-kind).
Other in-kind donations were received from KIFW, Old Harbor Books, Greater Sitka Arts Council, Pizza Express and Hair Play.
In addition to these generous financial and in-kind contributions, we had some wonderful volunteers that helped throughout the event. Many thanks to the staff at Keet Gooshi Heen for helping with set-up and clean-up; Casey Demmert, Diana Twaddle, Mandy Evans, Twila Keaveny, Rich Krupa, Natalie Voron and special helpers Grace and Ashton. The Mt. Edgecumbe High School LEADS volunteers did a great job of being pin-setters and adding a lot of enthusiasm to the event.
With financial support from events like Bowl for Kids’ Sake, BBBS is helping more Sitka kids find their path and realize their dreams are within reach by matching them with a caring adult who provides a positive and supportive presence in their lives.
If you can spare a couple hours a month to hang out with a great kid, please call 747-3500 or go to www.bbbsak.org. Big Brothers are especially needed. Thank you.
Kealoha Harmon,
Sitka Community Director,
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Citizens Task Force
Dear Editor: I was surprised by the recent recommendations of the Citizen’s Task Force. I went and looked up their goals to help understand their mission and direction. As stated on the city’s website, their number one goal is to determine what core services the CBS, must maintain. I attended the Citizens Task Force town hall meeting and noticed during their presentation and through their handouts that the Sitka School District was not on the top of their list, in fact it was more of a side note lumped together with non-profit organizations.
I believe that on the list of core services that should be maintained, the Sitka School District should be at the top. I am a product of the Sitka School District. I benefited from quality teachers, programs and facilities. My family moved to Sitka at the beginning of my first-grade year and I graduated from Sitka High School in 1997.
I moved back to Sitka after finishing my education to raise my family. My son will be starting kindergarten in the fall and I am concerned that he and my daughter will not have the same or better educational experience that I had. It is alarming to me that we have 95 students with free periods and are down a math teacher at Sitka High School. It would be one thing if this were the case, and we as a city were contributing all that we could to support our schools, but we are not.
The city has not funded to the cap in the last decade and this is having a drastic impact on our children’s future. There is a lot of research out there that supports the importance of electives in students over all education and the direct development of their career choices beyond high school. We all know the importance of math in all careers and in preparation for college. We as a city should be doing all we can to provide our children with the resources they need to have the most successful future possible. The school district can only do so much with what they have been given.
It all comes down to priorities. I know that Assembly members have to make hard decisions. The city is in tight place with the debt from the Blue Lake hydro project, decrease in state and federal funding and I’m sure a myriad of other factors I am unaware of. But if the federal government is going to cut funding to our schools and the State is going to cut funding to our schools, it is up to us as a city to step up and make our children our priority, nobody cares about them as much as we do. Should they have to pay for the financial mistakes of the adults? I don’t think so!
It is our job to buffer them and provide the best we can for them. If that means we as adults need to make sacrifices, like driving on gravel roads, then so be it. The Citizen’s Task Force mentioned that one of the ways they prioritized items was by looking at equity. There is nothing more equitable than public education. High quality schools attract families and it is the families that are the biggest asset to this community.
An investment in our children is a long-term investment in the future of this community. Please take the time before the April 29 Assembly meeting to let our Assembly members how important our schools and are children are to our future as a community. You can do this by emailing them at assembly@cityofsika.org
Chohla Moll, Sitka
