Martin Fredrickson
Dies in Juneau
Martin A. Fredrickson, 81, longtime Sitka resident, past fire chief, fisherman, Elks member, friend, loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather, passed away at Bartlett Memorial in Juneau late Sunday, Feb. 3.
An obituary will be published later in the Sentinel.
Mt. Edgecumbe High School
Sets Founders Week Events
Mt. Edgecumbe High School will kick off Founders Week activities Feb. 10 with a potlatch for its student body and staff. Two events later in the week will be open to the public.
‘‘We will have a traditional foods dinner followed by fiddle dancing featuring Regina Simon-Pingayaq, an alumni of MEHS and some of our local musicians,’’ said MEHS Cultural Activities Coordinator Rachel Moreno. ‘‘Our students enjoyed last year’s fiddle dancing so much, we decided to make this event an annual part of Founders Week.’’
The public is invited to the Gathering of Cultures event 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at the B.J. McGillis Gymnasium. Admission is free. Entertainers are the local Tlingit group the Sitka Kwaan Naa Kahidi dancers; MEHS Yup’ik dancers joined by Stephen Blanchett, who is a member of the group Pumyua; elder, actor and artist John Pingayaq from Chevak; MEHS Athabascan dancers; and MEHS Inupiaq dancers.
The public also is invited 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14, to hear keynote speakers Zoe Merritt, an alumni who earned her degree from Stanford University, and Vivian Korthuis, an alumni who is currently the president of Alaska Village Council of Presidents. Regina Simon-Pingayaq and Stephen Blanchett will perform. The event is free of charge.
‘‘During Founders Week, we are excited to also have our second session for this school year of the Artists in Residence Program, an annual partnership between Mt. Edgecumbe High School and the First Light Foundation founded by Anna Hoover and funded by Cook Inlet Regional Corporation,’’ Moreno said.
The grant provides funds for students to be taught traditional art forms from Alaska Native and American Indian artists from Alaska and the lower 48.
Five artists will teach St. Lawrence Island gut basket making, Yup’ik and Inuqiaq songs and dances, Aleut bentwood visor-making, Yup’ik head dresses for girls and Yup’ik-style dance fan and drum-making during the week of Feb. 11-15.
For information contact Moreno at 966-3278 or 738-6595.
Zoe (Merculieff) Merritt is the daughter of Robert and Michelle Merculieff and granddaughter of Al Adams, Aurora Madsen, Rinna Merculieff and Fred Kee. She is Inupiaq and Aleut and her family is from Kotzebue and St. Paul Island. She graduated from MEHS in 2011 and went on to earn a bachelor of arts degree in psychology with a focus in health and development and a minor in Native American studies from Stanford University in 2016. She received her master’s of business administration degree in general management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2018.
Merritt currently works in the clinical and research services department at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, working specifically on health research projects related to tobacco use and Alaska Native colon health. She worked as a research analyst in the Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Unit with the Division of Public Health.
She spends most of her free time playing with her 2-year-old daughter Penelope, or catching up with best friends from MEHS.
She said one of her fondest memories at MEHS was Halloween of 2008.
‘‘My friends and I dressed up as the Fanta girls and my friend Donald Handeland dressed up as the scariest clown I’ve ever seen,’’ she said.
Vivian Johnson Korthuis, Yup’ik, is a tribal member from Emmonak. She graduated from MEHS in 1982 as valedictorian and student body president. Her parents are Jacob Johnson Sr. (MEHS 1961) and the late Eunice Hunter Johnson (MEHS 1963). Korthuis is the eldest of seven children, all of whom attended MEHS. Many of her immediate family members also attended MEHS.
Korthuis graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1986 with a bachelor of arts degree. Her major was history with minors in environmental studies and Native American studies.
Following college graduation, she was hired for a job in Japan. One week before leaving for Japan, she received an invitation from the University of Alaska Fairbanks to participate in the very first cohort of 10 graduate students to receive their UAF master’s in education. As part of the test pilot, Korthuis student-taught at MEHS under a master teacher. She graduated from UAF with her master’s in education in 1995.
Currently she serves as the first woman chief executive officer for the Association of Village Council Presidents. AVCP is the largest tribal consortium in the United States, representing 56 tribes. She has 30-plus years working with Alaska Native non-profit corporations. She sits on the Alaska Federation of Natives Board of Directors and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference-Alaska Executive Board of Directors. She has worked with tribal, federal and state leaders in Alaska and the lower 48 and has traveled across the Arctic to countries including Russia, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Denmark.
She lives in Bethel and is married to Darrell Korthuis. They have two children, Tatiana (MEHS 2019) and Charlee (MEHS 2022.)
Her fondest memories of MEHS include the story of her mom and dad’s first date going to a MEHS dance in the early 1960s. Korthuis said that if her dad hadn’t asked her mom, who had another boyfriend, to the dance, she would not be here today.
She said that if not for MEHS, Alaska would be a different place.
‘‘In the 1980s, the federal government made the decision to change its policy regarding Indian boarding schools, and if it was not for the MEHS students’ fight to keep the school open, none of us would be here at MEHS today in 2019 to celebrate Founders Week,’’ Korthuis said.
Service, Non-Profit Groups
Sought for Grant Funding
Holland America Line and Princess Cruises Community Advisory Boards are accepting applications for grants to local service and non-profit groups in six communities, including Sitka.
Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Seward, and the Yukon also are included.
CAB members are local civic and business leaders who advise Holland America Line and Princess Cruises on local corporate contributions and community involvement projects.
Each board distributes corporate grants twice annually and prefers to provide support for projects that will benefit the community as a whole. Funding requests for special projects, specific needs, or community events are favored over general operating expenses, large scale capital projects, or travel.
Funding for travel outside of Alaska/the Yukon is not permitted.
In an effort to support as many local organizations as possible, grant requests must not exceed $2,000.
CABs request organizations that received grants within the past year delay their applications until 2020. The application has changed from previous years. Updated copies are available upon request.
Applications for the spring cycle are due in Anchorage by March 14, and should be mailed or emailed (email is preferred) to Kai Fugere at kfugere@hagroup.com or Holland America Line and Princess Cruises, 745 W 4th Avenue Suite 100, Anchorage, Alaska 99501.
For more information, or to request an application electronically, contact Kai Fugere at (907) 264-8043 or email kfugere@hagroup.com. CABs plan on awarding grants in late spring.
A REVIEW:
‘Our Towns’ Has Heart
‘‘Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America,’’ 413 pages. ISBN# 9781101871843 in hardcover by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows. Penguin Random House LLC, publisher.
I like to read books about travels, so when I saw the title “Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America,” I was intrigued. It is about the authors’ five years of travel to towns not on the national media radar. At the end of the book, and of particular interest, their summary includes signs of civic success they had noted on their journey by private airplane.
I will save you the trouble of reading the entire book and tell you their 10 and 1/2 signs of a community on the move, big or little, though they did not visit a community on an island with no road into or out of it. 1. People work together on practical local possibilities, rather than allowing bitter disagreements about national politics to keep them apart. 2. You can pick out the local patriots who make the town go - they may have different answers, but what mattered was that the questions had answers. 3. The phrase “public-private partnership” refers to something real. In a successful town, people could point to a specific entity and say, “This is what a partnership means.” 4. People know the civic story. 5. They have vibrant downtowns. 6. They are near a research university. Between UAS, Sitka Sound Science Center, and our three high schools, we have stellar research and academic activities in our town. 7. They have, and care about, a community college. I hope we do. 8. They have distinctive, innovative schools. 9. They make themselves open. Open to all. 10. They have big plans.
Their 10.5 sign of a community includes this quote: “Of course, there’s one other marker of a city that is working, perhaps the most reliable gauge. A city on the way back will have at least one craft brewery.”
They end the book with this: “A town that has (breweries) also has a certain kind of entrepreneur, and a critical mass of mainly young customers.”
Since I am writing this review, I would also include in my own list the small cafes that serve a wide variety of people and allow people to cross paths and ideas to be shared. If you couldn’t tell, the authors were avid craft brew drinkers. Maybe one day they’ll make it to Sitka and we’ll see if we’d make the list. –JB
Southeast Farmers
Summit Feb. 15-17
The Southeast Alaska Farmers Summit will be Feb. 15-17 in Sitka.
The event is for commercial growers and other local food producers, and provides a variety of educational seminars and networking to help strengthen Southeast Alaska farms and food businesses.
To learn more go to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org. to sign up go to www.saltandsoilmarketplace.com.
A Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training also is planned.
The summit is being coordinated by the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition and Sitka Local Foods Network.
Free Trees Given
For Arbor Day
Anyone who joins the Arbor Day Foundation in February will receive 10 free Colorado blue spruce trees or 10 free redbud trees to plant when the weather turns warm.
The free trees are part of the foundation’s Trees for America campaign.
“These trees will help beautify your home for many years to come,” said Matt Harris, chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation. “The trees will also add to the proud heritage of your state’s existing Tree City USA communities.”
The Tree City USA program has supported community forestry throughout the country for the past 40 years.
The trees will be shipped postpaid at the right time for planting, between March 1 and May 31, with enclosed planting instructions. The 6- to 12-inch trees are guaranteed to grow, or they will be replaced free of charge.
Members also receive a subscription to the foundation’s bimonthly publication, ‘‘Arbor Day,’’ and ‘‘The Tree Book,’’ which contains information about planting and care.
To become a member and receive the free trees, visit arborday.org/February or send a $10 contribution by Feb. 28 to: Ten Free Colorado Blue Spruce Trees or Ten Free Eastern Redbud Trees, Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Avenue, Nebraska City, NE 68410
Doc Talk Series
Slated this Month
SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital is offering a free Doc Talk series this month at Sitka Public Library. All are at 6-7 p.m.
Feb. 12 – ‘‘Yoga and Heart Health’’ by Andrea Thomas.
Feb. 19 – ‘‘Hypertension and Heart Health,’’ presented by Dr. John Baciocco.
Feb. 26 – ‘‘Nutrition and Heart Health,’’ by Katherine Carroll.
Contact Heleena van Veen 966-8914 or heleenav@searhc.org with questions.
Collage Quilting
Class on Tap
A collage quilting class will be held 10 a.m.-5 p.m. March 2-3 at the Sitka Community Hospital classroom. It will be taught by Jan Donovan.
Cost is $120 and space is limited. Sign up at Abby’s Reflection.
Collage Quilting
Showcase Listed
Collage quilting instructor Jan Donovan will showcase her work with a trunk show 7 p.m. March 1 at the Pioneers Home Chapel.
ANS to Meet
Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 4 will meet 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, at the ANB Founders Hall. All are invited to attend.
Peratrovich Day
To be Observed
Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 4 is planning an Elizabeth Peratrovich Day celebration with a parade lineup at 11 a.m. and entertainment following the parade at the ANB Founders Hall.
Anyone interested in walking in the parade or presenting at the ANB Hall should contact Rachel at 747-7382. All are welcome to participate or attend.
