Kirby Faverty’s dunk in the varsity basketball game against Craig on Jan. 19 rocked the gym. Fans don’t get to see dunks very often. Glacier Bear basketball followers say the last dunk by Haines during a regulation game occurred in 2012 when Tyler Swinton stuffed the ball in a tight match-up against Wrangell.
Joe Parnell is touring Guatemala, where he reports he is developing a new type of yoga called “cloga” using one’s arms like the hands of a clock. He also built one of his signature benches for a henna tattoo street artist in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Celia Bower earned her bachelor’s degree in marine biology from University of Alaska-Southeast in December. She’ll receive her diploma with classmates in the spring. Celia is the daughter of Laurie Mastrella and Marty Remund.
Mark your calendars. Haines Gymnastics will perform the halftime show during the Haines Triple Threat basketball tournament March 7 in the big gym. As many as 18 of the club’s 25 members will perform a three-minute routine, using rhythmic ribbons. Holly Davis leads the club with help from Lenise Henderson Fontenot and Ellen Larson. Open to students in grades K-3, the club’s season runs from September to April.
Don Nash and Ajax Eggleston didn’t see a single bird on a recent ptarmigan hunting trip to Chilkat Pass, but they did rescue a trucker broken down on the highway. As if to mock their efforts, two ptarmigans appeared at the customs station during the duo’s return to town.
Saturday night’s swirling snowstorm stranded musicians in town but didn’t deter 25 or more upper highway residents who attended the square dance and potluck at Mosquito Lake School. Dawn Drotos, chair of Friends of Mosquito Lake School and Community Center, said refreshments had been made and recorded music worked just fine. That so many highway residents could make it underscored the value of the building to the neighborhood, she said.
Andy Hedden spent New Year’s with old friends Michael Ahmuty and Chris and Nichole Denker backcountry skiing in the Kokanee Mountains near Nelson, B.C. They were among 10 friends who helicoptered in to a cabin at 7,000 feet to spend a week. Andy said more than 40 inches of snow fell during the trip.
Eileen McIver reports the recent statewide cold spell was especially tough at the cabin in Healy she shares with sister Kerry McIver. With temperatures dipping to minus 40 F., plumbing vents clogged with hoarfrost and voles burrowed into the cabin in apparent defiance of Little Black, the sisters’ cat. “I’ve driven too many voles around in my car after catching them,” Eileen said.
Chilkat Valley Community Foundation endowment funds have exceeded $1 million for the first time, a milestone for the Haines-based charity, said Crystal Badgley. Crystal is secretary for the CVCF’s advisory board.
If you have a plow and some time to donate, the Haines Friends of Recycling could use help clearing the area used for recycling activities, HFR board member Riley Kosinski said this week. The nonprofit has a small plow and one employee, and so clearing eats into other necessary work, he said.
Chip Lende missed all the cold weather and heavy snows on a trip to Ocala, Fla. to see his mother Joanne Lende and sister and  brother-in-law Karen and David O’Conner, who have an equestrian center there. He rode his bike 50 miles a day through horse farm country and watched a lot of Fox News with his mother. 
On the first leg of her move to Utqiagvik, Jenna Kunze survived a frozen tire valve in Beaver Creek, Y.T. and a missed turn that sent her and traveling partner Travis Kukull toward Valdez in a blizzard. She made it to the town formerly called Barrow just in time to see the first sunrise since Nov. 23. Working from a grant provided by the Pulitzer Center for Journalism, Kunze will spent two months reporting on how Alaska Natives there are adapting to climate change. Thermometers there read – 43 F. this week.
David Simmons has returned from a recent trip to Europe, visiting places he lived in Russia and Bavaria. In Norway, he met relatives on a 140-year-old family farm on an island near Bergen. During the holiday break, he canoed the Rio Grande with Chris Naughton and Libby Jacobson and Libbby’s parents Alison and Glen and siblings Ketch and Anna. David drove 3,100 miles to Haines from Calif.
Kiersten Long and Jessie Adams-Weinert are new lifeguards at the Haines pool. Kiersten Long is still training and will serve as back-up lifeguard as her availability fluctuates with school and extracurricular activities. Jessie is a graduate of University of Arizona with a focus on Family Studies and Human Development. She also leads yoga classes at the Chilkat Center.
Haines High School alumni Josh Hibbard has been named vice-president of enrollment management at Central Washington University. Hibbard holds a doctoral degree in higher education administration and previously worked at Azusa Pacific University.
Krista Kielsmeier visited Haines Jan. 12-15 while on a 3.5-month world tour. She left graduate school in Ireland in October to travel and saw 18 countries on five continents. Highlights included Ushuaia, Argentina, billed as the world’s southernmost city, Chile’s Easter Island, and the Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. In the Canaries she visited with longtime travel partner Joseph Duggan Lyons. In Haines, she saw Lori Carter, Shawn and Sarah Bell and watched former teammates in a women’s scrimmage hoops game alongside scorekeeper Karen Garcia. Krista has started a master of public administration graduate program at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Author