Woman’s Club
Meets Saturday
The Sitka Woman’s Club will meet noon Saturday, April 8, at Pizza Express.
Nominations and current mini-grant requests will be discussed. All are welcome. Email sitkawomansclub@gmail.com with any questions, or call Robin at 535-1076.
Spring Preschool
Story Time Set
Sitka Public Library will offer a preschool story time program 10:30 a.m. April 13 and 20.
Story time will take a break in May because of school visits and in preparation for the Summer Reading Program on June 1.
Storyline will continue to run every week. It offers a story in both English and Spanish, with new stories each week. They can be listened to as many times as you like, anytime you like. To hear a short story, dial the library at 907-747-4020 and press 9.
For information, call (907) 747-4020, or contact Maite at maite.lorente@cityofsitka.org
Spring Art Walk
Slated April 14
Greater Sitka Arts Council has scheduled the Spring Art Walk April 14.
The public is invited to the Island Artists Gallery 5-8:30 for an event featuring music by Bellymeat, light refreshments and a new season of artwork by member artists. New artists Bobbi Jordan and Dillon Sprague.
Jordan is known to many for her community-based photography. The show will showcase her work that goes far beyond images of local events. She polished her techniques at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography.
Sprague creates works of art inspired by the natural beauty of the land and seas. He works with ink, paint, and candle soot. Fumage is the name given to the art medium in which an artist uses a lit candle to deposit soot onto the surface of paper or panels as one would use a brush and paints to create a painting. Sprague then uses knife blades and other implements to scrape away the soot to further refine the image.
Many of the artists are moving in new directions, and these works will be showcased at the arwalk.
Sitka Cirque Sets
Spring Production
All are invited to Sitka Cirque’s spring production “Under the Big Top” this month at 207 Smith Street.
Showtimes are 6:30 p.m. Saturdays, April 22 and 29, and 5:30 p.m. Sundays, April 23 and 30. Doors open 30 minutes in advance of the show.
Aerialists of all skill levels will perform pieces on silks, trapeze, lyra and more.
Admission cost is $25 for adults, $15 for youths and seniors, and free for ages 5 and under. Tickets are available at sitkacirque.com.
Artist Talk On
Eric Bealer Set
At Public Library
Stephen Lawrie and Maite Lorente invite the public to a conversation about Eric Bealer’s wood engravings and his place in the art world at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 19, at Sitka Public Library.
The conversation is part of “The Squirrel & the Bear: Eric & Pam Bealer’s Life in the Tongass” exhibition, which will be April 7-21 at 221 Harbor Drive, in the Venneberg building.
The library event will include short talks by different guests about Eric Bealer’s beginnings in art, the wood engraving technique, and analysis about his engravings, and his place in the art world, among other topics. Hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be offered.
Limited seating is available. For more information call (907)738- 7574, or go to stephenlawrie.com.
Reading Buddies
Sought by Library
Sitka Public Library is looking for adult reading buddies for the summer. Those who enjoy reading with a child can sign up to participate in a program that promotes literature among children.
Buddies will meet up to one hour each week with an assigned first- or second-grader. The program runs from June 3 to Aug. 5 with time off for vacations.
Fill out an application at Sitka Public Library or e-mail Maite at maite.lorente@cityofsitka.org for more information. Applications are due May 19.
Drill Conductor
Classes in Sitka
AMSEA will conduct a fishing vessel drill conductor class 8 a.m.-7 p.m. April 21 at the NSRAA building, 1308 Sawmill Creek Road.
The cost is $125 for commercial fishermen and $225 for all others. It meets the U.S. Coast Guard training requirements for drill conductors on commercial fishing vessels. Register online at www.amsea.org or call (907) 747-3287.
It will cover cold-water survival skills; EPIRBs, signal flares, and mayday calls; man-overboard recovery; firefighting; flooding and damage control; dewatering pumps, immersion suits and PFDs; helicopter rescue, life rafts, abandon ship procedures; and emergency drills. AMSEA’s fishing vessel drill conductor workshops meet the U.S. Coast Guard training requirements for drill conductors on commercial fishing vessels.
The class is an opportunity for commercial fishermen and other mariners to gain hands-on training with marine safety equipment and learn best practices for surviving emergencies at sea. AMSEA is offering this class at a reduced cost to commercial fishermen with support from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, and AMSEA members.
Nursing School
Information Given
The UAA School of Nursing with UAS will hosting an information session for those interested in nursing in Southeast Alaska.
It will be hosted over Zoom, but UAS-Sitka Campus will stream the session 3-5 p.m. Friday, April 7.
Email Kristin Scotchmer at kascotchmer@alaska.edu for the Zoom link or to RSVP for the in-person session.
Mercury Exposure
Findings Offered
University of Alaska Fairbanks professor Todd O’Hara and Maggie Castellini, reseacher, will present preliminary findings of a community-based pilot project on the assessment of mercury exposure in diet and measured concentrations in hair of Sitka residents 6 p.m. April 12 at Centennial Hall.
O’Hara and Castellini also will hold an outreach meeting to provide an overview of the research findings and gauge the public’s interest in a future research project focusing on marine vertebrates and people.
The next step would be a community-based proposal to the National Institutes of Health. The outreach meeting will be 2 p.m. April 12 at the Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s administration building, 204 Siginaka Way.
Both meetings are open to the public. The speakers will be in Sitka April 10-12 and said they look forward to interacting with residents. For information contact Jeff Feldpausch at 747-7469.
Methodist Church
Holy Week Set
Holy Week activities at the United Methodist Church have been scheduled.
Wednesday will be a Taize contemplative service at 6 p.m.
Maundy Thursday communion service is planned 6 p.m. Thursday.
Good Friday prayer stations are open 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Resurrection/Easter Sunday services are at 10 a.m. Sunday.
The public is invited to attend.
Resident Scientist
Ulaski at Sitka
Science Center
The Sitka Sound Science Center is hosting Dr. Brian Ulaski as April’s Scientist in Residency Fellow (SIRF).
Ulaski’s research focuses on oyster and seaweed mariculture in Alaska. His fellowship is funded by the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research program.
The science center’s SIRF program provides four weeks for scientists to have time to work on their research and to engage with a breadth of the community in a variety of ways.
Ulaski is a postdoctoral researcher in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences marine biology department at the UAF. He received a bachelor’s degree in aquatic biology from the University of California Santa Barbara where he also learned to scuba dive in the giant kelp forests.
Before graduate school, Ulaski worked as a scientific diving assistant with the Mo’orea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research program in French Polynesia to help develop his skills in using scuba to study marine environments.
He received a doctorate degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and conducted his doctoral work on the response of wild seaweeds to harvesting
and how naturally detached seaweeds form habitat for intertidal animals when cast ashore in Southcentral Alaska.
Currently, his research focuses on how suspended oyster and seaweed culture techniques used in mariculture in Alaska influence biological communities at established farm sites. In particular, he is interested in how farm structures create habitat for fouling organisms and how farm productivity influences benthic communities.
Ulaski grew up in California, is currently living in British Columbia, and will be moving back to Alaska to continue conducting his postdoctoral research based in Fairbanks.
While in Sitka, he will explore local mariculture efforts and meet with community participants.
Besides the community events listed below, Brian will connect with UAS aquaculture and MEHS students to discuss mariculture in Sitka, and participate in the Earth Day Parade of Species celebration.
His schedule includes: the Morning Interview, KCAW 104.7 FM, 8:15 a.m. April 10; Beach Day and Coffee Meet-Up, including a cold dip, tide pool exploration, and coffee and pastries at Sage Beach, adjacent to SSSC, 8 a.m. Friday, April 7; Natural History Seminar with Kitty LaBounty, in partnership with the University of Alaska Southeast, a seminar about Brian’s research studying mariculture in Alaska, 7 p.m. Thursday, April 13, location TBA; and a community snorkel adventure at Sage Beach to learn about local seaweed species 9 a.m. Friday, April 21.
