Gratitude
Dear Editor: I would like to give special thanks to the Coast Guard, EMT, Fire Department, Police Department, Dive Team and Search and Rescue Team for their dedication in helping all those in need.
Lorraine Inez Lil, Sitka
SAPCT Grant Thanks
Dear Editor: In April 2021, Brave Heart Volunteers was awarded $7,395 from the Sitka Alaska Permanent Charitable Trust to create a new “End of Life Care Short Course” for people facing the unexpected, imminent loss of a loved one.
The funds allowed BHV to develop an hour-long instructional program for families who are suddenly “thrown into the deep end” and have never assisted someone who is dying.
The goal is not to “teach them to swim,” but to “throw them a lifeline” and provide enough resources, encouragement, and confidence to bear such a challenging experience. While the need for such a course was prompted by pandemic-imposed restrictions that prohibited BHV volunteers from providing in-person care, it has proven to be an effective “next best option,” allowing anyone, anywhere who is suddenly thrust into this difficult position to have support.
To begin, BHV prepared a simple handbook, Compassionate Care at the End of Life: Essentials for Caregivers, which contains 18 pages of key information on how to prepare for and recognize the signs of approaching death, comfort care, effective communication, important things to do after a death has occurred, and processing grief and loss.
BHV then created a straightforward summary of the material for delivery during the hour-long course for caregivers, via telephone or Zoom. The curriculum includes a 30-minute overview on Care for the Caregiver, Care for the Care Receiver, and Preparing for the Final Stage, followed by a 30-minute session for answering questions. Afterward, the handbook is mailed or emailed to the family for more in-depth examination and reinforcement of the information learned during the short course.
BHV also enlisted and trained nine of their most seasoned End of Life Care volunteers to help present the course to caregivers. These EOLC volunteers and BHV staff will also provide ongoing support as needed.
Families have already benefited from the short course and most significant is the peace it gives them. They feel strengthened and steadied after being equipped with knowledge, and less isolated and afraid while sitting at the bedsides of their dying loved ones. As one caregiver stated, “Without the short course, I wouldn’t have known what to expect, how to help my mom transition, or how to stay calm when she died. I would have been panicked trying to figure out what was going on, which would have made it worse for her and everyone around me. Everything shifted after my family attended the short course. We settled down and focused on our common goal to help Mom have the most peaceful death possible. It was valuable to hear the information, then apply it during each stage of her dying. I was better prepared and not as scared as I would have been without it. It was so helpful. I don’t know how people cope without it.”
BHV thanks the SAPCT for their incredible generosity, which has allowed BHV to fulfill its mission in new ways and provide an additional, invaluable service to Sitkans and their families.
Thank you,
Angie DelMoral, Executive Director
Brave Heart Volunteers
EV Charging Infrastructure
Dear Editor: In the last month’s letters to the editor, Norm Campbell, George Eliason and Cornelia Hubscher have all weighed in on electric vehicle charging infrastructure. I agree that current Leaf owners will continue to charge their vehicles at home, which will discourage private investment in public charging. In fact, aside from RV parks and one experimental charging station in Anchorage, public level 2 (240-volt) chargers in Alaska do not now cost money to use because there aren’t enough electric vehicles to make billing profitable.
In addition, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska has allowed only utilities to charge for electricity and not third parties. This may change in early 2022 when the RCA also addresses petitions to avoid load demand charges that make commercial rapid charging of electric vehicles unaffordable.
However, the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed last week brings federal support to charging infrastructure with $1.25 billion for rural areas, such as Sitka. In addition, Alaska’s remaining Volkswagen Settlement funds are still available for 240 volt community-based chargers with a 20% match of non-governmental monies in cash or in-kind. Private ventures certainly can provide the match if they perceive an advantage in having a public charger at their business location.
The advantages of our municipality installing charging infrastructure with federal subsidy are many. For social equity during the EV transition, persons living in apartments are largely unable to have inexpensive used EVs because they have no place to charge. Most of the 131 EVs in Sitka were bought used, as we don’t need the mileage range that is now available in new ones.
As the Pacific Marine Highway ferry system is revived with infrastructure monies, charging infrastructure will attract tourists to Sitka, as Cordova has calculated. To do our part in lowering greenhouse gas emissions at a time of fossil fuel price volatility, we need charging infrastructure for our municipal fleet and our yellow school buses, with the latter being subsidized with $2.5 billion by the federal infrastructure bill.
The average daily mileage of our school buses would not require fast chargers, and we may be able to obtain used electric school buses as lower 48 communities upgrade to fast charging buses with more range. Tribal Tours and the RIDE may consider replacing old buses with electric ones if fast DC charging were available, and this service might raise revenue. Perhaps Alaska Coach Tours and the Island Bus Company would partner with the municipality to install fast chargers for tourist buses. Increased electric load from electrifying transportation might lower utility rates for all of us or help us pay off our dam indebtedness, while also lowering our collective carbon footprint.
In sum, Sitka needs to transition to electric vehicles with the rest of the country with federal monies available in the next 5 years. When cost sharing is required, there is an important role for private partners. Now is the time to forge these partnerships with the City so that we can apply when federal agencies request proposals in the next few months.
Kay Kreiss,
Sitka Community
Adaptation Network
Grateful
Dear Editor: We are a group of five students who have studied mariculture in Southeast Alaska, from salmon hatcheries to kelp and oyster farms, with Prof. Angie Bowers at the University of Alaska Southeast this fall. We want to thank this community for welcoming us as neighbors and extending your kindness throughout our semester intensive program.
We are surprised and grateful at the chance to build friendships with people we meet across town. We see everyone here working together for the greater good, supporting each other, sharing materials, information, and help whenever possible. We appreciate connection with organizations like the Science Center, Raven Radio, hatcheries, farms and local schools.
We are grateful to be guests on Lingít Aaní. Across the spectrum of this place, special individuals have shown up for us and enriched our experiences and lives.
What an amazing place to live! We see bounty, where people can live off the land. We see reciprocity as people share their harvest and choose to trade. We are excited at all of the opportunities this place holds, and for all the young people like us, who have the chance to pursue a sustainable future for our oceans, food systems and communities.
The Alaska Aquaculture
Semester students at UAS-Sitka
