Baranof Kids Camp
Dear Editor: This summer Baranof Elementary School ran a four-week camp for incoming kindergartners and first-graders. Its goal was to foster social and emotional learning, provide hands-on activities, sharpen school skills, and provide enrichment opportunities.
The STEPS grant would like to thank the many people and organizations that made Baranof Kids Camp possible.
Thank you to Bridgette Reynolds and Matt Groen of Pacific High School and Emily Pound from Sitkans Against Family Violence for gardening and crafting with the campers. Students weeded, harvested garlic, and ate berries at Pacific High. Thanks, too, for the use of the Pacific High van. It was key to the program.
We would like to add a thank you to the Sitka Legacy Fund, Sitka Emblem Club, and LFS Marine Supplies for their generous donation of funds last school year. Baranof purchased rain gear for the playground and we were happy to have it on hand for our field trips during Kids Camp. When Baranof kids wear yellow, they are wearing the love their community has for them!
The Sitka Summer Music Festival played for our children. Thank you, Zuill Bailey and Kayla Boettcher, for making this possible. Bravo, brava, Evan Drachman and Susan Reed. Your music enraptured the kids! We wish we could show everyone the video of students, eyes closed, “dancing” to the music.
Dawn Johnson, the Hames Center is wonderful. From Teen Nights to hosting Baranof Kids Camp, the Hames Center looks out for Sitka’s children. Campers loved the bouncy castle.
Thanks to the Blatchley manager Ricky Jarvill and pool staff for welcoming our swimmers.
Many thanks to Maite Rial and the staff of the Sitka Public Library. The public library serves children every single day with programming, summer breakfast, books, computer time, reading spaces, and, for our campers, library cards! Nothing is more important to a child’s early education than a connection to books and reading. Maite Rial is an early childhood champion!
The Sitka Rotary Club provided funds for meals and snacks. We were able to provide the students with a substantial breakfast and a noon time snack. Thank you, Rotarians!
Sitka runs on AmeriCorps volunteers. Thanks to Sarah Lawrie, program director, for facilitating whatever it is that Sitka needs done. And many thanks to the volunteers who show up every day to make things happen in our town. Much appreciation to AmeriCorps volunteers Mary Hommel and Ashley Nessler. They joined teachers Marlie Loomis, Morgaine Enfiejian-Stewart, and paraprofessional Brooke Rivera to make a program that students were eager to attend.
A final thanks to the Baranof parents who woke their children early on summer days and waited with them until the van arrived, who talked with their kids about gardening and library cards, and who came to camp on the last day to sit with their children and dine on their handmade pepperoni pizzas. We appreciated partnering with you.
Kari Sagel, STEPS Grant,
Sitka School District
Breakfast Program
Dear Editor: For many families, the stability, nutrition and education that is provided by school lunch programs and after-school activities ends when school lets out for summer. For some children and teens, the summer months can mean reduced or limited access to healthy food, learning and enrichment programs, and safe places to congregate and be active.
That is why we are so grateful to the many community members who supported the pilot Summer Breakfast Program at Sitka Public Library. Over the summer, twice a week, the library opened its doors an hour early to welcome youths of all ages for a free breakfast, ultimately providing more than 400 meals. Families from all corners of Sitka participated. Many also enjoyed access to free books and scavenger hunts while they visited.
This pilot project was a collaboration between Sitka Public Library, Sitka Kitch and Sitka Conservation Society and would not have been possible without the generous contributions of local individuals and businesses.
Thank you to Sea Mart and Fred Meyer for donating gift cards, and Sitka Co-op for providing produce to serve. Thank you to the families and individuals who shared homemade dishes and donated in person and/or online.
Thank you to Old Harbor Books, Beak Restaurant, Highliner Coffee, Fisheye Cafe, Ben Franklin Store, Sitka Sound Science Center, and the Chocolate Moose for hosting the alien for kids and families to find in the library’s Space Race program that ran in tangent with the Summer Breakfast Program.
We are happy and grateful for the success of this year’s program and hope to carry this work forward in summers to come, to improve food security for local families. If you would like to get involved with the Summer Breakfast Program, contact Sitka Conservation Society at 747-7509.
Sitka Public Library,
Sitka Kitch,
Sitka Conservation Society
Bike Ride Thanks
Dear Editor: Last week’s 50-mile group bicycle ride, the first-ever Sitka Half Century, capped off a great week of cycling activity.
The week started when instructors from the Susitna Bicycle Institute, Scott Menzies and Charlie Lowell, led a 40-hour bicycle maintenance workshop for three teens and three young adults who will work at the new Sitka Bike Co-Op to open later this fall. The workshop was great and made possible because of youth scholarship money from the Sitka Rotary Club and dozens of locals. When the original funding source fell through Loyd and Julie Platson came to rescue by opening their home to our special guests from Anchorage. Thank you, Platsons, for your generosity and kindness. Thanks also to the good folks who provided wonderful dinners, Tom and Lisa Hart, Toby and Norm Campbell, Nancy Meitle, and Catherine Rogers’ crew, who also took them to the Sitka Cirque show after a great meal.
Additional thanks goes to the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka Campus for hosting an evening community Introduction to Basic Bicycle Maintenance workshop, and to Sitka Counseling and the Hames Center, who have joined forces to make a bike room for our newly minted mechanics to practice and eventually teach basic bike maintenance. Thanks to Alyssa Russell for her many contributions to this project.
On top of all that Sitka got its first public FixIt station thanks to the City and Borough of Sitka and CRW Engineering Group of Anchorage, who donated and then helped to install the unit that has a tire pump, stand, and the basic tools to keep a commuter going. Thanks to Brian Looney of CRW Engineering Group for coming to Sitka to help install the FixIt station.
After the ribbon cutting on Saturday, more than 50 helmeted cyclists took off for our club’s biggest and longest group bike ride. Before we departed, we loaded up on snacks that were generously donated by the Hames Corporation and Caitlin Way from the Fisheye Coffee. Thanks also to the Sitka Fire Department for loaning us radios and for the local media who helped us get the word out. Finally, thanks to everyone who attended and supported last week’s events.
Doug Osborne, Sitka Cycling Club
