Essential Workers
Dear Editor: In times like these it is important to be grateful to individuals who are putting themselves out there for our community so I would like to say gunalcheesh to our essential workers!
But who are our essential workers? Here’s my list: 1. Sitka Sentinel Team, thank you for reporting daily spread of the coronavirus along with all the other important news of the day. Thank you for immediately making your paper free to everyone!! Thank you for getting it out every day and delivered to collection spots all over Sitka! You have gone over and beyond what would be expected for a small town newspaper. It is a wonderful gift to our community. I am renewing my subscription because frankly, I don’t know how you are managing to keep all your Sitka Sentinel family paid!
2. Healthcare workers, thank you for standing out in the cold testing people who drive up to provide minimal exposure to everyone. Thank you for testing yourselves regularly to keep us safe. Thank you for the safeguards you have built around our elders from the very beginning to keep them safe. Thank you for the caretakers who go in out and are minimizing their movements in town to protect the elders. This takes great commitment to our community.
3. Thank you to our police force, firemen and first responders. You are the backbone of our effort. Your encouragement and support means everything.
4. Thank you to our grocery stores, gas station workers, who have kept the food and fuel available and safe for us to access. We appreciate you requiring mask-wearing AND wearing a mask yourselves so that our families working so hard to provide this service stay safe and so do we.
5. Thank you to Raven Radio! During this pandemic and protest, Raven Radio has been the consistent voice that keeps us informed about local, state and national news. But their gifts of music soothes our troubled soul. Hearing our friends volunteer our favorite shows has made us appreciate all that y’all do to support our community. I listen to you everyday! Thank you so much for being there.
6. Thank you to the folks who run our city and our Sitka Assembly members. We are so thankful that we have honest, hardworking people who ramped up their support and think creatively and listen to citizens. I am grateful every day that somehow we found John Leach, because during this pandemic his military experience and quick thinking have been so valuable to our city. He has the ability to look at the big picture, be decisive while listening and learning along with all of us. His honesty and awareness of the facts makes him a great leader during this time!
7. Thank you to our commercial fishermen and fisherwomen and fish processors. You have managed, in the worst conditions, to figure out a way to safely secure our local food supply at a time when serious threats to the national food supply hovered over our nation. We appreciate how you have worked with our healthcare workers to keep us safe. Along with the fishermen and women we have to thank the hatchery workers and especially Sitka Sound Science Center that has managed to continue the crucial research on climate change effects on our food supply that is so vital for our dependence on our marine ecosystem into the future.
8. Gunalcheesh to our Sitka teachers and administrators who took immediate measures to protect our children and still provide them with educational opportunities. They were forced to provide some educational order in an extreme situation. Their preparedness for digital support that had not been dreamed of was greatly appreciated. They continue to be innovative and creative to meet the educational challenges as I write this.
9. Gunalcheesh United States Coast Guard! No matter what, your protection and devotion to our safety has been our port in a storm! Thanks to your families who support all your efforts!
Lastly, but not least, thank you to essential workers cannot be complete without thanking the support of folks in Sitka who stayed home, restricted movement, put in an effort every day to reduce the spread and are still doing so by WEARING MASKS. Aren’t we all essential workers in this effort. I dream when this is over we can have a great “essential workers” celebration! We are truly in this together. We can do this!
Patricia Dick, Sitka
