Capt. Norman Hughes accepted the Lifesaver Award from National Fisherman on behalf of Randa Hopper Syzmanski at the Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle Wednesday. Randa spearheaded the Richard Boyce Inflatable Suspenders Fund, to provide safety gear to the Haines fishing fleet. Jennifer Hathaway of National Fisherman presented the award. Norm also participated in the Fisherman’s Rodeo, where he took second place in the blindfolded knot-tying contest. Norm was given three pieces of rope, and tied a sheet bend, bowline and figure eight. Other Haines fishermen at the Expo included Cindy Adams, Hugh Rietze and John Hagen. John saw former Haines resident Herbie Gulliford, as well as Haines High graduate Jonathan Moore at the Expo, and spent time with his brother Michael Hagen, who works as a software engineer for Google.
The Haines student council staged their mock election to coincide with the presidential election this year. Voter turnout was an impressive 66 percent of the high school student body. Students voted using the state of Alaska’s sample ballot. Students voted to stick with the status quo. They voted 54 percent to reelect President Obama. They also reelected U.S. Rep. Don Young, Rep. Bill Thomas and Sen. Albert Kookesh.
Larry Zehe is recovering from surgery for Dupuytren’s contracture, a deformity of his right hand. The two-hour operation was more delicate than expected, and will take six months to fully heal. Larry plans to have the same operation on his left hand once he is recovered from the first surgery. Friends at Haines Senior Center wrote good wishes with their non-writing hands to the popular van driver. Send Larry and Nina cards at14602 92nd St. SE, Snohomish, Wash., 98290.
Pete Dohrn, Jen Allen, and their daughter Emma visited Pete’s mom, Barbara Dohrn and Joe Rosenbaum at their Palm Springs condominium. The complex had four swimming pools, which Emma took advantage of twice a day. The family spent Thanksgiving together, and Emma rode her new bike in the sunshine.
Marge Matthews continues to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Patti and Mike Day, in Boise, Idaho. Mike reports that Marge is moving around well with the help of a walker, and spends lots of time with the family’s two little Chihuahua mixes. Send Marge cards for her upcoming Dec. 26 birthday care of Patti Day, 6822 Kirkwood Ct., Boise, Idaho 83709.
Maggie Stern has returned from Austin, Texas, where she spent four weeks at the Optimum Health Institute. She studied holistic healing as part of a residency program that had students in practice and classes throughout the day. Maggie is preparing to offer classes as a raw food educator this spring. Classes included vegan raw food preparation, anatomy, nutritional healing and meditation.
The Juneau Theatre in the Rough performance of Macbeth filled the Chilkat Center to near capacity Saturday. About 40 people took advantage of the wine and cheese reception prior to the performance. Guests had the opportunity to socialize with co-artistic directors Aaron Elmore and Katie Jensen, who played Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In costume for the reception, the directors gave an overview of Shakespeare and the nonprofit theater company, which has performed 16 of Shakespeare’s 38 known plays.
The Uglys of Haines brought some holiday cheer to the residents of Haines Assisted Living during Sunday’s ice cream social. The men’s service group brought decorations to deck the Christmas tree, served homemade hors d’oeuvres and organized entertainment. The Men of Note and members of the Haines a Cappella Women’s Chorus performed for residents. Uglys President Chuck Mitman said the group also made a contribution to have HAL’s piano tuned. Santa also made an appearance, and had his picture taken with each of the residents.
Haines Assisted Living is planning an afternoon unveiling of an original portrait of HAL’s founder and resident, Lucy Harrell. The HAL board of directors commissioned the oil painting by Donna Catotti to honor Lucy, who originally conceived of an assisted living facility in Haines. The HAL board will present the painting at a reception 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 13. Tea and cookies will be served.
Hospice of Haines Director Beth MacCready reports the group has been working with nascent hospice programs in Seward and Kodiak to bring the Haines model of a volunteer hospice program to those towns. Hospice bereavement facilitator Liz Marantz-Falvey has been hired by the Kodiak hospice program to conduct a four-day training session. Kodiak is flying Liz from Kona to Kodiak for the training this week.
A comic film edited last year by Kee Heywood, “The Life of Eric Richards,” recently won the best Short Short Film Award (for films under five minutes) at the 2012 American Independent Film Festival in Los Angeles, Calif. The video can be seen at vimeo.com/38480954.
Chilkat Bakery owner Miki Atkins kept her restaurant open until midnight Saturday night to accommodate hungry high school wrestlers who had traveled to Haines for the Region V tournament last weekend. The restaurant normally closes at 8 p.m., but over 30 people swarmed in and packed both sides of the establishment around 9:30 p.m., Atkins said. “They had no place to go and everywhere else was closed and they needed food to eat. I just felt bad. I’m here anyways. It was good to open for them,” she said. Pat Warren saw the restaurant was open after-hours and stopped in. “People from the other towns were very happy they could come and get something to eat…It really made them feel good about Haines,” Warren said.

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