Longtime Haines School art teacher Linnus Danner was awaiting surgery at an Anchorage hospital early this week after suffering a broken leg in a bicycle accident near the Haines School Thursday. Linnus said she’s doing okay, but her recovery will keep her from teaching again in the current school year. You can drop a note to her care of Providence Hospital, Box 196604, Anchorage, AK 99519-6604 or email her by following the “patients and visitors” tab at www.alaskaprovidence.org. Neighbor Heather Lende accompanied Linnus to Anchorage. Former Haines High School principal Gary Matthews and former administrators Michael and Michelle Byer were among visitors in Anchorage.
Former state Sen.Albert Kookesh, D-Angoon, was recently hired as special assistant to Gov. Bill Walker on rural issues, including energy. Albert says he has lost weight and feels recovered from a heart attack suffered two years ago and more recent knee replacement surgery. He quoted the health lesson he learned from the late Walter Soboleff: “You have to take care of the old person you’ll become.”
Haines-based pile-driver Norm Baxter was en route this week to Anchorage for cataract surgery. He’ll then be working on state ferry dock improvements in Kodiak. Baxter and resident Jimmy Combs were previously working on a municipal harbor project in Kodiak that utilized the state’s largest container cranes.
Ty Esposito was in town last weekend, filling in as public health nurse and picking up her mini dachshund Bonnie, who had been staying with Bob Lowden. Ty, who now works as state public health nurse in Wrangell, said other interims would be filling in for Brigid O’Connor, who returned to the Lower 48 to care for family.
Sarah Novell-Lane says she likes seeing friends from Haines at her job at Hummingbird Hollow, the Juneau airport’s gift shop. A former KHNS operations manager, Sarah also is studying toward an environmental science degree at the University of Alaska-Southeast. Husband Christopher Novell-Lane is working as an accountant for the state.
Mike Wilson and Margaret Walsh were married at a private residence Oct. 10, with a reception later at the Haines Senior Center. Kay Clements served as marriage minister. Anne Hanssen was maid of honor and Dave McCandless was best man. Margaret, who hails from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, said she was overwhelmed with gratitude to people who made food and helped out at the wedding reception and welcomed her to the community. Mike and Margaret met in 2010 aboard a ferry traveling from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia.
Jackie Brewington and mother Judith McDermaid of The Hair Shop attended The Best of the Best Midwest Hair Show at the Harley-Davidson museum in Milwaukee, Wis., last week. They watched haircutting demonstrations, learned new techniques and saw new styles, including updos. Product distributors Paul Mitchell, Goldwell and Aquage were represented. “Rose gold” is the hair color of the year, Jackie said. Jackie and Judith also visited friends in Milwaukee and Racine, Wis.
Friends are holding a Halloween-themed fundraiser to help with Lois Wickward’s medical expenses. Lois, who put on extravagant Halloween displays at her Lynnview Drive home, was diagnosed earlier this year with a rare, highly aggressive form of skin cancer and recently suffered complications from a mastectomy. The fundraiser dinner and auction starts 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30 at the high school cafeteria. Donations can be made online at the Facebook page “Party Down for Lois!”
Juneau artist Rachel Juzeler was in town this week, delivering a piece of glass art for display in a window at the Haines Brewing Co. brewery. The piece includes four cast-glass hammers. Juzeler, who has organized homebrew competitions during the annual Great Alaska Craft Beer and Homebrew Festival, said she’s hoping the hammers eventually will join the collection at Dave Pahl’s Hammer Museum.
Diana Kelm returned to Haines Oct. 16 after celebrating her 71st birthday in Seattle, where she was medevaced two weeks earlier. Her unusual birthday gift this year? A new aortic valve for her heart! Diana says she is getting back in shape and, “If you want to keep up, better get on your running shoes!”
Jay Miller of Haines was posthumously honored during the recent ANB/ANS Grand Camp Convention in Wrangell. ANS Grand Camp officer Mary A. Brown paid tribute to Jay by calling for a standing ovation. Miller was an artist and silversmith who lived in Haines and Skagway. One of his bracelets donated to the convention raised $1,115. A breakfast was heald in Miller’s honor.
Stacie Evans said a night brightened by the aurora borealis, a meteor shower and ocean bioluminescence amid the cacophony of 500,000 breeding pairs of Leach’s storm petrels capped her summer as crew leader studying seabirds on St. Lazaria Island off Sitka. Stacie was crew leader of a three-person team monitoring breeding activity, productivity, population, diet and chick growth on the island that’s part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Terribly rainy weather was punctuated by incredible sunrises on the island, she said. The storm petrel resembles “a tiny albatross,” she said. Stacie had a similar job in 2014 studying birds on the Aleutian island of Aiktak.
Nicole Studley completed 23 laps Oct. 15 at the Haines pool to mark her 23rd birthday. Nicole is blind and partially paralyzed, but swims every week, said caregiver Marlys Johnson. “She really pushed herself. She was red in the face when she finished,” Marlys said. Nicole has swam her age every year on her birthday for about eight years, she said.

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