The marriage of Lenore “Nori” Nash and Brian Pindell was celebrated on May 12 in Portland, Ore. Lenore is the daughter of Nancy and Dwight Nash. Brian is the son of Jim and Mary Pindell of Waterford, Wis. The wedding and reception were held at Portland’s Polish Community Hall, where Nancy played the processional music and Dwight walked his daughter down the aisle. Nori’s attendants included her sister, Amelia Nash, and friend Reed Scott-Schwalbach. Nori’s brothers, Carl and Adrian Nash, were ushers. The men in the wedding wore red ties made with Thai silk. Nori wore a vintage ivory dress. Guests included Nori’s cousin Gary Dire, who drove from North Dakota, and who hadn’t seen the family in many years. Ester Elkins, 89, a family friend and relative of Dwight’s, came from Salem, Ore. Former Haines residents Suzie Scollon and daughter Rachel Scollon also attended. Dwight sang “Love Me Tender” for the couple’s first dance, with Nancy on piano. The family formed the “Nash Family Ramblers” to perform an a capella rendition of the Everly Brothers’ “Devoted to You.” The dinner included a whole roast pig, and a legacy wedding cake. Nori tracked down the same cake and bakery to make the fudge cake served at her parents’ wedding in Portland more than 40 years ago. An “ancestors’ table” included wedding photos of the couple’s parents and grandparents and from the wedding of Maisie and Dave Jones.
Family and friends gathered at the Alaska Native Brotherhood hall for a hoedown to celebrate the graduation of home-schooled student Felicia Hansen. Square dance caller Gene Kennedy made the “high-energy” dance fun, said Felicia’s mother Valina Hansen. Len Feldman, Tom Heywood, and Mark Carroll provided lively music. The family prepared dinner for the gathering, including sausage and egg casserole, homemade bread and fruit salad. Friends brought desserts. Felicia, who sells handmade purses and skirts in Haines, is saving money to attend fashion design school. She is also learning Mandarin and hopes to travel in China.
Ann Quinlan contributed to a unique project to remember the 1.5 million children killed in the Holocaust. Ann, who spends the winter in Sun City, Ariz., responded to a call from her knitting and crochet club to create handmade butterflies for the Houston Holocaust Museum’s “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” project. Ann created 50 crocheted butterflies, which will be part of an exhibit planned for Spring 2014, in which each butterfly represents a child killed in the Holocaust. Each butterfly took Ann about an hour to create. The museum has collected 900,000 arts-and-crafts butterflies from around the country and is accepting butterflies through the end of 2012. Butterflies may be made out of any craft medium, with the exception of glitter or food items. For more information, go to www.hmh.org/butterfly.
The American Bald Eagle Foundation is hosting five interns this summer, their largest group ever. Sarah Cloutier, from Maine, is in a museum studies graduate program at University of North Carolina. She will be entering the foundation’s collections into a database. Claire Floyd and Carla Irene hail from the University of Alabama. Claire graduated this year with a degree in zoology. Carla is majoring in wildlife science. Marjorie Powers, from the University of Missouri, is majoring in pre-veterinary medicine and biology. Katrina Wohlfarth of Haines Junction, Y.T., is a graduate of Yukon College in Whitehorse where she majored in biology and worked at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. The foundation covers their interns’ travel expenses and provides housing and a food stipend.
The American Bald Eagle Foundation graduated 10 student interns from their raptor-handling course. The 12-week program met for two-hours each Saturday and included written exams and oral presentations by the students. Student graduates are Skye Posey, Sarah Long, Elena Saunders, Tailor Olsen, Rebecca Heath, Mandalyn Gala, Haley Boron, Hannah Boron, Neil Little and Autumn Gross. Taught by the foundation’s raptor curator, Dr. Dan Hart, the course included instruction in raptor care and nutrition, food-preparation and live audience presentation techniques. The American Bald Eagle Foundation now houses 12 birds, including a merlin that arrived from Anchorage last week. The bird was born with a deformed wing and cannot fly. At 123 grams, it’s smaller than a dollar bill.
Julie Postma is the Hammer Museum’s summer intern. From Atlanta, Ga., Julie is entering her senior year at University of Georgia with a major in advertising. Julie is interested in graduate work in museum studies and found the Hammer Museum through a museum list serve. She is learning from Hammer Museum founder and director Dave Pahl, and will be helping with the museum tours, advertising projects and an expansion of the museum store. Julie describes her experience in Haines so far as “awesome.” Dave and Carol Pahl set Julie up with a float trip down the Chilkat River, and a trip on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad in Skagway. She’s already been hiking with interns from the bald eagle foundation.
Friends gathered to bid farewell to Josh and Tennie Bentz and their children Taiya and Kinley. The surprise party was set for the beach, but inclement weather moved the gathering to the home of Ashley and James Sage. “We told them it was our anniversary party,” said Lexie DeWitt, who was celebrating her 2nd anniversary with her husband Stuart that day. Friends had to scramble for excuses to get the family to the party. Hudson Sage helped lure Tennie and the girls. Josh was called off the golf course. The family is moving to Juneau where Josh is a state trooper and Tennie will work for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as education coordinator.