Community Thanks
Dear Editor: With both the summer and tourist season slowly but surely getting underway, I’m pleased to report that the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society’s summer work projects at the Japonski Island Boathouse are also getting underway.
Year by year we are getting closer and closer to finishing all the needed work to finally open an active “Maritime Heritage Center” that will benefit our community (especially our youths) and members of the visiting public alike. This year our project goals include continue rehabilitating the exterior of the boathouse, getting an ADA compliant restroom up and running, and installing a sprinkler throughout the boathouse.
Since the project start in 2005, SMHS has always been fortunate in that we’ve always enjoyed strong community support by way of memberships purchased, local sponsorships, and thousands of hours of volunteer help fixing up the boathouse. In turn, SMHS has leveraged those thousands of hours of volunteer labor into hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding brought into Sitka and subsequently spent at local businesses and with local contractors.
While there are too many individuals that support the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society to list here, we would at least like to thank the following business sponsors: F/V Coral Lee, Hames Corporation, K&E Alaska, LFS Marine, North Pacific Seafoods, NSRAA, Oceanside Excavation, Outer Coast Charters, Precision Boatworks, Rasmuson Foundation, Sitka Elks Lodge, Sitka Moose Lodge, Sitka Ready Mix, Sitka Rose Gallery, Sitka Rotary Club, Sitka Sentinel, Sound Sailing, Spenard Builders Supply, White’s Pharmacy, and Wintersong Soap Company.
With special thanks to several of our “super” volunteers: Richard Doland, Terry Perensovich, James Poulson, Greg Watchers, and the staff and students from Outer Coast College.
THANK YOU, SITKA! Know that everyone is invited to join our work parties on just about every Saturday from 9 to noon at the Boathouse across the bridge. No skills needed.
Sitka Maritime Heritage Society
Keith Nyitray, Executive Director
