Sorted by date Results 301 - 325 of 415
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has received a large federal grant to revitalize the languages of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian in four Southeast Alaska communities. The $927,000 award from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) will fund four mentor-apprentice teams of Lingít (Tlingit), Xaad Kíl (Haida) and Sm'algyax (Tsimshian) speakers and students in Metlakatla, Hydaburg, Sitka and Juneau to study the languages over three years. The program, "Haa Shuká: Voices of Our An...
Residents of Marlow Manor Assisted Living in Anchorage were joined by an unexpected guest during a day visit to Anchorage's Botanical Gardens in late July. At the entrance, a sign warned guests to beware bears, which prompted lively joking, says Marlow Manor activities director Maria James. "We asked the admissions lady if there were any in the woods. She said yes, but not that day, because they were all fishing." But while the group was walking the trail, taking in the gorgeous surroundings...
"There wouldn't have been a CROP Walk for many years, if Kristi Johnson hadn't volunteered to chair it," says Paul Boling, senior minister of First Christian Church. Paul and his brother, Dave, associate minister at the church, stepped up to chair the Walk this year and last year, when Kristi needed a break. She'd been chair or co-chair for 10 years. "It's such a good event for the whole community," Paul states. "It's a fundraising walk to alleviate hunger, here and around the world. I know how...
Two of the most colorful governors of Alaska ran against each other three times. They were very different in philosophy and temperament but wanted the best possible Alaska for its citizens. “The Ticket” is a world premiere by Cyrano’s resident playwright Dick Reichman and is about an imaginary meeting between Wally Hickel and Jay Hammond. The play opens Sept. 9 at the award-winning historical Cyrano’s Off Center Playhouse at 4th and D in downtown Anchorage, and will continue with 7 p.m. showings on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays...
Fill a tote bag – hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, raincoat, umbrella, extra layer for warmth, rain boots, water bottle. Find the car keys and wallet and hop in the car. Destination - the Alaska State Fair! It wouldn’t be summer without at least one fair visit to marvel at giant vegetables, listen to bleating goats, crowing chickens, buzzing honey bees and enjoy local Alaskan fair foods like rhubarb-lemonade and fried, local peanut potatoes. State fairs have been part of American culture since the mid 1800s, providing education and ent...
Moving from Alaska to Minnesota was both difficult and easy. In a way, I figured I had done enough time in the Great Land and there are lots of wonderful things to see in the other 49 states. I spent nearly 49 years in the 49th state. I lived in Fairbanks from September, 1967 to August, 1976, when I moved to Anchorage. Moving to Minnesota was easy because I grew up in Faribault, graduated there, and my nephew still lives there. My grade school chum, Marie, still lives in Faribault. Moving to Minnesota was difficult because I made so many...
"It's a history book, a photo book and a memoir – all in one." That's how photographer and storyteller Jim Lavrakas describes his book, "Snap Decisions: My 30 Years as an Alaska Newspaper Photographer." He's just released a second edition of the book originally published in 2012, and has included some updated stories and new photos. Jim comments on his motivation for the book, when he first thought of putting it together back in 2010. "I had left the Anchorage Daily News as a staff p...
This year's 12th Alaska International Senior Games will be held August 12-21 in Fairbanks, with the opening ceremony and gala games kicking off at 6 p.m. at the Fairbanks-North Star Borough Birch Hill Recreation Area. The event begins with a torch lighting ceremony, lead by the senior athlete Bettie Upright, 101 year young! Since 2003, AISG has attracted participants from across the United States and several other countries to compete in everything from disc golf and road races to ice hockey...
It's a raw and rainy morning in June, rare among the many warm, sunny days served up for Anchorage this spring and early summer. It's not the kind of day anyone would delight in being outside – grey, damp and chilly. Downtown, people in raincoats, carrying seldom used umbrellas, scurry indoors. There is a place in downtown Anchorage whose doors are always open, 24/7, every day and every month of the year, no matter the weather. Covenant House Alaska has opened its doors for 27 years, working t...
Arlene Schmuland is an archivist who helps people access collections of photos taken in Alaska-photos of soldiers outside Quonset huts, photos of streets and towns the 1964 quake ripped and pulled to pieces, photos of the enlightened people who transformed a territory into a state. But the chief archivist for the UAA/APU Consortium Library Archives and Special Collections can't stop thinking about all the images the archives doesn't have: the ones tucked in albums, packed away in attics here...
Wilma Knox was 55 years old, and wondering if she and her husband, Robert, would have sufficient funds, facing retirement. She was also an adventurer. So instead of retiring, she took off on what she called "the adventure of a lifetime." It was 1975, and construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was just beginning. Why not head to the Arctic and take part in a project that was being compared to the building of the Panama Canal in complexity and stature? Wilma would work on the far northern...
The Anchorage Woman's Club has been awarded grant money to restore Anchorage's historic Pioneer Schoolhouse. The building, now located downtown at 437 W. Third Avenue, celebrated its 100th anniversary in November 2015. It was the first schoolhouse built in Anchorage, and was moved to its current location in 1965, after standing through the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake. It was approved for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in December, 1980, according to a May 13 press release...
My husband, Elliott, and I were on an excursion. On a sunny, warm afternoon in early April, we were bumping along a curvy, gravel road, up and down hills, heading to the home of Joanna and Ken Walch in Big Lake. Joanna – Jo – calls it "our little paradise." Their home is perched on a hill, overlooking Mud Lake, covered with thinning grey-blue ice in our unusually warm spring. We were about to meet a cast of characters. In the yard, greeting our approach with a few curious howls, was Jo's sle...
There was a generation of women who grew up without heroines, without much hope for fulfilling their wildest dreams, but then there were those women who changed all that by sheer will and determination. They thumbed their noses at "girls don't do that" and went on to do precisely what they said they would. Dr. Nancy Elliot Syndam is one. And she was honored for that grit at the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Anchorage Museum on March 3. She grew up on a 60-acre farm in...
"I didn't want to leave Fairbanks. I love my town." – Karen "I came back to Fairbanks after moving to Oregon. I came back to live here, at Raven Landing. It was like coming home. I had never really wanted to leave." – Patti "This community, this place, this is my family." – Patricia This was one happy, congenial group, residents of Raven Landing, gathered for dinner one mid-March evening in the community's large, light-filled dining room. (There was much laughter when one woman at the table...
The Fairbanks Senior Recognition Day returns to the Carlson Center this year on May 12, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Enjoy a delicious free lunch (seniors only), enjoy presentations and entertainment, gather information, and see who wins the Outstanding Volunteer and Lifetime Fitness awards. Transportation is available through the Fairbanks Parks and Rec Senior Program, but you space is limited. To reserve a seat, call 459-1136. For more information, visit www.co.fairbanks.ak.us/pr/Pages/Seniors.aspx ....
The Anchorage Senior Citizens Advisory Commission will host the annual Older Americans Month Kick-Off Event May 4 at the Anchorage Senior Activity Center, from 10 a.m. to noon. This year’s Older Americans Month theme is “Blaze a Trail.” The Kick-Off event features entertainment, speakers and the presentation of this year’s Ron Hammett Award for outstanding service to seniors and their families. For more information, call 343-4763....
If retirement means "to call it quits" or "pack it in," as my dictionary suggests, that is not at all what Sandy Harper has in mind. It is a time of transition for her, of new perspectives, as she hands over the lead position of producing artistic director of Cyrano's Theatre Company to Teresa Pond, representing a younger generation. Sandy calls this transition a passing of the torch and the beginning of a new era for Cyrano's, but since the theater has become very much a part of who she is,...
Denakkanaaga in February announced a new Native language tool for people interested in learning Gwich’in or Koyukon-Athabascan. Denakkanaaga is the Fairbanks-based regional non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of and for Alaska Native elders of Interior Alaska. In a Feb. 2 press statement, the organization explained that through a language revitalization grant from Doyon, Limited, Denakkanaaga has produced an everyday language video series in which elders teach commonly used words in the two Interior Alaskan dialects. The video c...
The annual Cama-i Dance Festival, bringing together Native dance groups from all around the state, takes place April 1-3 in Bethel at the high school. The festival also showcases performances from guest dancers from outside Alaska, dance clinics, a Native foods dinner and more. For information and the impressive schedule, visit www.camai.org. Also in Bethel, this year’s annual Tribal Unity Gathering takes place April 6 and 7 at the Piciryarait Cultural Center. This is the 23rd Tribal Unity Gathering, sponsored by the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health C...
The Northern Lights Model Railroad Club will hold a model railroad open house March 26-27 at Russian Jack Springs Park in Anchorage, noon to 4 p.m. Club members will be on hand to talk about the railroad and answer questions, and most importantly, there will be trains running on the layout. Parking and admission free. This is a great family event, and is always popular with the kids. For information, call 301-9272. Read about the club’s history and projects on their website: http://alaskamodelrrnews.homestead.com/nl.html...
I walked in cold. Although I've been a regular lap swimmer at the Anchorage Community YMCA for decades, ever since the day the pool opened back in the 1970s, I had not attended land classes. So there I was, a true klutz, in the Y's SilverSneakers® class. "I know why you love to swim," my husband has told me, kindly but pointedly, many times. "You can't trip when you are swimming." There's much truth in that. I spotted a friendly face. I'd often been in the pool with Alis Schmitt. She would b...
The Kenai Peninsula Senior Olympic Games return this year, Feb. 16-20, offering friendly competition in more than a dozen events: eight-ball pool, exhibition water-walk, cribbage, bridge, darts, walk-a-thon, hand-n-foot, wii bowling, basketball, pinochle, dominos, ping pong and poker. The events will be held at various locations in the Nikiski, Kenai and Soldotna areas, and are open to all Peninsula seniors age 55 and older. This is the 12th year for the games. New event co-chair Bonnie Cain says she heard “a lot of feedback” when the gam...
