Dinner, Auction Thanks
Dear Editor: In my inexperience I forgot to thank all the great local artists, businesses, cooks and bakers who selflessly contributed their craft and products to the success of the Elks Auction and Dinner last Sunday. More than $22,000 was raised!
The event was so full that more than 100 people couldn’t get in the door but took a dinner to go. Perhaps a hundred business and artists contributed – too many to mention individually. Know this, Sitka’s and the entire Southeast Alaska region’s troll industry knows about and appreciates your timely generosity.
I also want to thank Sitka’s media for reporting on the Wild Fish Conservancy issue. Thanks to KCAW’s Katherine Rose and Rob Woolsey, KIFW’s Maria and AJ at Problem Corner, and Shannon Haugland at the Sitka Sentinel.
Again, thank you, Elks.
Matthew Donohoe, President,
Alaska Trollers Association
Keet Family Night
Dear Editor: Keet Gooshi Heen would like to thank the many people and organizations that made Keet Family Night fun and engaging for the 179 families who attended.
Kudos to Tammy Clark, bakery and deli manager at AC Lakeside. She worked with her crew to provide 50 pounds of pancit and 200 vegetable rolls to Keet families. We appreciate how she worked with us to provide vegetarian and gluten-free options. Thank you to Mayrose Bagayo, Leah Van Cise, Juliet Castillo, Eliza Villanueva and Tracee Harrington.
NANA Corporation provided kitchen space, warmers, plates, utensils and fresh fruit for the event. Thank you, Tiffany Warringer, for providing so much and helping with setup and food safety.
To the powerhouse women of Delta Kappa Gamma, thanks. Retired teachers make a can-do team when it comes to lining folks up for food. Food service was our big worry until we heard that Jan Love, Liz Will, Toby Campbell, and Mary Stevens were in charge.
We want to further thank Vince Winter and AC Lakeside for offering a strawberry-dipping activity to Keet families. Thanks to Nicole Winter, Michael Fernandez, Zach Marthaler, and Jill Servida for assisting Vince with this activity. Fun turned into necessity when we ran out of pancit. We were so happy we could offer strawberries to expectant families.
Outer Coast and the Sitka High School National Honor Society provided volunteer help for Family Night. Losi Siulua, Shakira Logwood, Mahak Kumawat, Tyler Adres, Felix Myers, and Isabelle Schmetzer helped to set up, monitor ping pong, facilitate open gym, and deliver strawberries to families and teachers.
The Sitka Rotary Club can always be found when good things are going on in Sitka. We thank them for their support of reading in the library. Families set up tents, received “Sitka Rotary” flashlights, and read together in the dark. We joked that the Rotary “shines a light on reading”! Thank you to Jeff Budd, John Weitkamp, and Loren Olsen for their attendance. We know the Duck Race makes it possible. Thank you, Duck Father.
Thanks to James Poulson for photographing the event and highlighting it in the Daily Sitka Sentinel. Local news keeps us all informed.
Appreciation to Keet families for attending the event and giving us information in before-and-after surveys! We listened and designed the evening with your suggestions in mind. More pancit! It was the after-survey rallying cry. Along with these informal surveys, the Sitka School District uses data from the yearly School Climate and Connectedness Survey in planning and decision-making. Last year, parents expressed the need to get back in the schools. Keet Night was one effort to make that happen.
That Keet Family Night was the place to be was evidenced by food shortages and gatecrashers. Word is that Janelle Lass and Mindy Barry encouraged appearances by a naughty but fun T-rex and a hand-walking circus performer.
Lastly, thanks to the Keet Family Night team: Nathan Padilla, Jeanine Brooks, Jennifer Davis, Korie Krause, Anita Simic, Susan Ross, Terry Pike, Kari Sagel, Jamie Bradley and Casey Demmert.
Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School
Family Night Team
AmeriCorps
Dear Editor: I believe it was a dream that first pulled me to Sitka. All I understood in the dream was the tension in the classroom and the despair on a young girl’s face as she held a stuffed animal whale. A few weeks later, as fate would have it, a friendship blossomed between me and an AmeriCorps alumni who had previously spent a year in what they described as one of the most rewarding and challenging places they had ever lived, where ego goes to die: Sitka.
For some reason unbeknownst to me, I felt tingly sensations from the crown of my head and down my spine as they described to me what it was like for them to work with Alaskan youths. I listened to that feeling and flew from the sunshine state to the most wet and dark place I have ever lived, committed to a year of service through the AmeriCorps program, absolutely thrilled to be serving Mt. Edgecumbe High School (MEHS) and the students I would soon come to love and hold close to my heart.
I was warned quite adamantly that I would be humbled, but it was not in the way that I expected. It was not when I discovered how much orange juice would cost me for the next 12 months, nor the terror of taking a turn too quickly on an ice slicked road, and not even
when I tripped and hobbled home with a sprained ankle and torn ligament. I may have been knocked down a peg or two;2222 however, it’s in the friendships that I’ve made with the students that have brought me to the floor.
I have found on my journey thus far that the Alaskan youths ... who partake in the recreational activities and projects at MEHS are truly my teachers. They continue to remind me of the importance of not being serious all of the time – they mostly enjoy demonstrating this by teasing me relentlessly. (Nothing like a pack of high schoolers to tell you exactly what they are thinking.)
They humble me with their stories that carry echoes of pain and joy, the beauty and movement that exists in their art, and the strength that stems from resisting the urge to roll over and give up. Suddenly, the child in my dream standing at the front of the classroom holding the whale with tears running down her face makes more sense to me now.
Because all I can think is, ‘‘Yes.’’ I’m listening and I’m trying to understand. I know I am a student and I am abundant with gratitude to have the opportunity to listen and learn. I am humbled.
Rachele Quarnaccio
Sitka AmeriCorps
