Julie Hughes Triathlon
Dear Editor: The Baranof Barracuda Swim Club and the Julie Hughes Triathlon committee would like to thank all of the inspiring participants, hard working volunteers and to our generous sponsors in this 30th year of the triathlon!
Special thanks to our sponsors – Russell’s, Yellow Jersey Cycles, and Harry’s Soda Fountain for providing prizes to our valiant participants. Backdoor Café for the coffee for our hard-working volunteers. Sea Mart Quality Foods, Sitka Community Hospital Health Promotion, and SAIL for providing goodies and information for our swag bags. Weiland Construction for printing signage and helping with course logistics and set up. Sitka Flowers for helping with the Pink Carnations. Sitka Police Department and the Sitka Fire Department for their time spent providing a safe environment for all of our runners and bikers throughout the course.
A grand round of applause to the volunteers who helped throughout the event, really just too many to thank in name though I would like to call out a few – Erika Knox, Dean Orbison, Maggie Gallin, Peter Weiland, Alexi Desatoff, Amy Morrison, Kathy Watson and of course Coach Siouxha!
And many thanks and lots of heartfelt love to the family of Julie for their support and sharing the memory and spirit we all miss so much. Bill, Carol, Susan, Camden, Caleb and Tamryn, it is a privilege to share this day with you all.
Thank you, again, to all!
Kevin Knox, Race Director,
and BBSC Board President
Conflict Palm Oil
Dear Editor: Today, May 20, is the Global Day of Action to cut Conflict Palm Oil.
Palm oil is derived from fruit of oil palm, a high yield crop with controversial health benefits used primarily as an ingredient in popular snacks sold in the U.S. Conflict Palm Oil is a term used by the Rainforest Action Network to describe palm oil production that is “associated with deforestation, child or forced labor, plantation expansion on carbon-rich peatlands, or violations of forest-dependent communities’ rights.”
Ninety-eight percent of palm oil imported into the U.S. comes from southeast Asia. Although an argument has been made that palm oil plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia have created jobs for the rural poor, the flip side is that the demand for Conflict Palm Oil has led to massive deforestation, localized species extinctions, and devastation to many people whose livelihoods depend on healthy, intact tropical forests.
The clear-cutting of tropical rainforest in Indonesia to make way for tracks of palm plantation monoculture is slated to increase to 44 million square acres, which can only create a devastating toll on the remaining populations of Sumatran and Borneo orangutans.
As residents of one of the last large expanses of temperate rainforest, we in Southeast Alaska are fully aware of the importance of wise use and sound management practices. We rely on a healthy ecosystem, clean and unimpeded streams, and mature stands of mixed tree species in order to enjoy the benefits of thriving salmon and wild game populations, a bumper crop of berries in the summer, personal recreation, and the numerous other attributes that provide us with quality health and well-being that we sometimes take for granted.
As we would want our forests to be managed sustainably in the face of global demand for products, so should we ask that snack food companies do their utmost to ensure that they do not source Conflict Palm Oil.
Before you buy, read the label. Call or write the representatives of the “Snack Food 20”: Campbell Soup Company; ConAgra Foods Inc.; Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc.; General Mills Inc.; Grupo Bimbo; Hillshire Brands Company; H.J. Heinz Company; Hormel Foods Corporation; Kellogg Company; Kraft Food Group Inc.; Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Corp.; Mars Inc.; Mondelez International Inc.; Nestle. S.A.; Nissin Foods Holdings Co., Ltd.; PepsiCo, Inc.; The Hershey Company; The J.M. Smucker Company; Toyo Suisan Kaisha, Ltd.; and Unilever, and ask them to remove Conflict Palm Oil tied to rainforest destruction and orangutan extinction from their products.
For more information on the Global Day of Action, visit www.ran.org.
Lynn Wilbur, Sitka
