Pacific High School
Dear Editor: I tried. I tried really, really hard. To not go down to check it out. But I couldn’t not do it. With the sweet, beckoning sounds of trucks and excavators just down the street, I had to go down Lincoln to Baranof to see what was happening. What an enticing racket of big equipment!
Of course, I kinda knew, but wasn’t quite ready. The demolition of the old Pacific High was under way.
An attractive sign had been posted weeks ago with an elegant drawing of the New Pacific High, Sitka’s alternative high school on our main street right behind the totem pole designed and carved by creative students some years ago. The money had been appropriated. The initial design had been modified per public input. The students moved to the Southeast Alaska Career Center next door. The office trailer was installed on the south corner and the equipment brought to the site. Even a notice in the paper alerted us the next steps were imminent. But I still wasn’t ready.
Now, in one week, the one-story structure is down. Carted away, hunk after hunk, truckload after truckload. Gone. Cleared down to the flat footprint of the old cement floor of the original two-story Lincoln Street School built in 1926. The school I attended from 1942 to 1950.
What I wasn’t ready for was the flood of startling memories of that old Sitka Territorial School. Looking down at the huge cement foundation from the rail of the new Career Center I could see where each classroom was located, and quietly remembered the teacher of every year, from first grade on the first floor, northwest corner, the skinny Miss Tyson to the fierce Mr. Boettcher in eighth grade on the second floor, southeast corner. Room after room. Year after year. From age 6 to 14.
And I recalled the hallway on the first floor leading to the girls bathroom at the southeast end with thin stalls and flapping wooden doors that were high off the floor and didn’t provide much privacy. You could hear everyone peeing, and that was embarrassing.
At the opposite end of the hall was access to recess, up the cement steps to the playground. How we loved recess! I wondered if any lost marbles and steelies would roll about again around the demolition site. I had to go look.
So on Monday, Nov. 26, one week after the major demotion, I gave in and walked down to that special place of my childhood to ask permission as a volunteer archaeologist to look inside the fence. David of Sunland Construction from Homer kindly gave permission, with appropriate cautions. And I had a wonderful two hours searching the grounds for artifacts on the surface while the jackhammer cut through the cement steps on the north end, and Josh cut the cement on the edge of the floor.
I found many pieces of red/orange brick exposed by the excavation six inches to a foot deep. Broken glass, a few ceramic shards, and some interesting rocks also had surfaced. Pieces of Russian history, I wondered?
Although no colorful marbles from the past were visible, memories sure were crashing around like steelies in my head.
Now I wonder how many generations of Sitka residents have a connection to that property on the corner of Lincoln and Baranof? Cheers to the new construction and to the next generations of students in the new Pacific High. What a city, this Sitka of ours with so many layers of history.
Nancy Yaw Davis, Sitka
Christmas Bazaar
Dear Editor: The 2012 Annual Christmas Bazaar was our biggest and best in its 32-year history. Sitka Counseling would like to say a big thank you to all Sitkans for showing their tremendous support for our organization and the bazaar.
We could not have completed this year successfully without our wonderful vendors, staff and especially the community. The day was filled with smiling faces, it was obvious you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did.
We would like to thank Sea Mart/Hames Corporation, Sitka High School, Harry Race and the Harrigan Centennial Hall staff for their donations which made this event a huge success. All of us at Sitka Counseling look forward to next year. Happy holidays.
The Staff of Sitka Counseling
Fish to Schools
Dear Editor: Fish to Schools is a program that offers students at Blatchley Middle School, Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School, Pacific High and Mt. Edgecumbe High a chance to eat locally caught fish for lunch twice a month. It was a goal of the 2010 Health Summit and is a collaborative effort between Sitka Conservation Society, NANA management services, local fishermen and processing plants, and volunteers.
It sounds like a simple thing to bring local fish to our kids, but in truth, it has taken a huge amount of time and effort. At Keet Gooshi Heen, the lunch program has been combined with a comprehensive educational agenda including field trips, visits by fishermen, demonstrations by local chefs and hands-on projects such as smoking and pickling salmon.
Sounds great, huh? So, what’s the problem? Well, you can lead a horse to water. Apparently, when left to their own devices, and when given a choice of local fish, hot dogs, or PBJ’s with a bag of chips (the two other choices offered on “local fish” day), most school kids tend NOT to choose fish. I’m sure this comes as no surprise to parents reading this letter, and I’m also sure that the immediate response is “Well that’s easy, take away the choices.” Nope, can’t do it. The school is required to provide a choice, and while I have my own opinion about the choices offered, there are obvious reasons why this is necessary.
Also, for a large group of parents, the school lunch menu isn’t even on the radar. If your child brings a home lunch every day, remembering that the second and fourth Wednesday of the month is “fish to schools” is probably not one of your top priorities.
Change isn’t easy. We all seem to want healthier food in the schools and we all seem to expect someone to take on the responsibility of making it happen. Yet when presented with the opportunity to be part of the solution, we seem to be apathetic about our own involvement. This program is just the beginning of a movement toward healthy local food being the norm for school lunches, instead of a twice a month anomaly.
So, this is my challenge: for every one of you out there who has said “Why don’t THEY…..?” I’m asking you “Why don’t YOU?” Why don’t you mark the second and fourth Wednesday on your calendar, why don’t you ask your child to eat school lunch on those days, and why don’t you remind your child to pick the local fish instead of the hot dog or PBJ? We can have an influence on what our children consume and it is our responsibility as parents to guide them in making healthy choices. Who knows, they might even like it.
Wendy Alderson, Sitka
Thanksgiving Dinner
Dear Editor: This year, the Sitka Community Holiday Dinner on Thanksgiving Day had approximately 300 guests. They were surrounded by a beautiful place-setting arranged by volunteers Margaret Gross Hope, Paulette Moreno, Anita VanDyck, Linda Wilson, Lacey Wolfe, Andrew Roberts, Sharon and John Ferrick, Harriet Beleal and Rachel Moreno, and the Cellar.
Bev’s Flowers and Gifts donated a beautiful arrangement and dozens of roses.
The committee could not have achieved this successful event without the generous donations from Shee Atika Inc., ANB Camp 1, White Elephant Shop, American Legion Post 13, Jean and Spike Arnold, Jeffrey Mochel, Martina Kurzer and Larry Edwards, Pat Svetlak, Sigurd Rutter, Harry and Kathleen Brandt, Chester Miyasato Jr., Victoria Dunne, Linda Wilson, Roby Littlefield and Gus Adams.
We also truly appreciated the kind and energetic help from the three Alaska airlines flight crew members who were grounded here for the day, Erika Miner, Judy Dybing and Kat Rutherford, and the Alaska State Trooper Academy cadets who recently graduated.
And as always, the wonderful Mt. Edgecumbe High School students who also helped serve.
Many of our guests also brought desserts and side dishes and volunteers helped cook. Glenda Enloe, Buzz Dick, Phyllis Moore, Mattie Olade, Hannah Nelson, Andrea Craig, Linda Blankenship, Velma Baines, Paulette Moreno, Andrew Roberts, Marko Dapcevich, Andy Lee, Eunice Brown, Hunter Lee, Betty DeCicco and many others who contributed their time to this annual event.
The community of Sitka always comes together when it comes time ot serve one another.
I had a lot to be thankful for this year, especially because I live in a place where people care about each other enough to give and serve each other. Those who don’t have family here or live alone are not really alone here. Thank you, Sitka. If I have left anyone out, please forgive me. It is not my intention.
Rachel Moreno, Chairwoman,
Sitka Community Holiday Dinner
