Duly Noted

The holiday season got off to a slippery start for Liz Heywood. After falling and breaking her elbow on Nov. 25, her surgery was delayed until Dec. 2, due to bad flying weather and the ferry breakdown. She’s now in a cast and sling. She fell while walking from the bank to the library. Heywood and three other fall victims were at the local clinic together. One had a concussion; another, an injured shoulder.
Jim Moran reports that 2010 Haines High graduate Kyle Rush, who joined the U.S. Navy in 2011, was part of the Navy’s typhoon rescue operation in central Philippines. The relief effort began last Thursday, when aircraft carrier USS George Washington and support ships delivered food, water, and emergency supplies to the area. The sailor helped evacuate locals, filling helicopters to maximum capacity.
About 15 people trekked to Rutzebeck Lake for an ice-skating party Friday under starlit skies. Heather and Chip Lende opened up their cabin and served up Portuguese fish stew. Skaters also enjoyed roasted hot dogs on the outside fire pit. Trumpeter Tom Morphet serenaded skaters and served nightcaps to visitors at his home there.
For residents relying on Senior Center transportation, it was a difficult few weeks getting around. One of the center’s two vans, used for transporting senior residents, was in Juneau for about three weeks, undergoing chair lift repair work. Senior Center director Cindy Jackson said the center was sometimes forced to turn down people needing rides. “We just couldn’t do it. That was really difficult.” But Monday was “celebration day,” as the van returned to Haines with a working lift.
Both Haines Middle School basketball teams took third place at last weekend’s tournament in Juneau. Coached by Ralph Swinton and James Sage, the boys’ team played six teams in seven games, losing the semi-final game to Ketchikan in overtime. They took third in the consolation game against Juneau school Floyd Dryden. Players included Dylan Swinton, Hudson Sage, Dalton Klinger, Cameron Bauer, Marty Fowler, and Garrett, Will, and Cole Ripley. The girls’ team, coached by Lori Giddings and Tiffany DeWitt, played five teams in six games, losing the semi-final game to Floyd Dryden. They took third in the consolation game against Juneau school Dzantik’i Heeni. Players included Makayla Crager, Zoe Hamilton, Brittney Bradford, Grace Lambert, Sarah Long, Saldie Wilson, Lili Benassi, Marissa Haddock, Ashley Williamson, and Marirose Evenden. Klinger, Swinton, Crager, and Hamilton were voted all-tourney players.
Last weekend’s performances of the comedy “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” at the Chilkat Center went “excellently,” said director Tod Sebens. He’s proud of the cast, noting their timing, pacing, volume, “and everything else” was spot on. The production was presented by Lynn Canal Community Players. Proceeds are going to the Foundation for the Chilkat Center for the Arts’ “Lights, Sound, Action!” campaign. As for his next performance, Sebens is looking into a dark comedy set in Ireland, which would require language coaching.
Those eating lunch at the Senior Center this week got to hear a story while they ate. Barb Blood spent lunchtime this week at the center reading “A Stranger for Christmas,” by Carol Lynn Pearson. Blood, who began reading the 72-pager on Monday, said she enjoys reading aloud and has this wonderful book. So why not?
J.R. Myers had to pay a Canadian hotel $150 to get his cat Sassy back, after the feline crawled into a hole in the wall of his hotel room. Myers and cats Sassy and Spunky were headed to northwestern Montana to his mother Nancy Myers’ house when Sassy disappeared into the bathroom wall through a hole under the sink. Myers left Sassy behind to make an appointment and was contacted eight hours later by the hotel. It took four employees to get Sassy out of the wall, they said.
Joanie Wagner is enjoying her winter doing house projects, art, and playing with granddaughters Isabelle and Scarlette Alamillo. In the summer Joanie manages Sevigny Studio and Art Gallery in Skagway for her daughter Katie Sevigny. Katie lives in Anchorage with her husband and three sons. Katie is kept busy running her other gallery in downtown Anchorage.  Daughter Alexis Alamillo is zig-zagging the country on a bus with two lounges, satellite TV, kitchenette, and eight bunks. She manages three trucks full of props for “Disney Live – Pirate and Princess” and also operates the rigging that flies several performers during shows.