Friends and family celebrated Mary Price’s 89th birthday Tuesday with a parade on Deishu Drive. The event was held outdoors with masks and hand sanitizer available for visitors. In addition, friends were encouraged to drive by to wish Price happy birthday. “We had people going by consistently for the whole night,” said daughter Nadine Price, who came from Anchorage for the event with her grandchildren Zhamirah Price, 16, and Giovanni Price, 2. Bill Price, the youngest of Mary’s 11 children, came from Juneau with his wife Angie and their son Evan, and niece Barb Carr came from Arizona. “It was very fun and exciting,” said Nadine Price. “We are looking forward to an even bigger parade for next year.”
Former Haines resident Raymond Lewis Sr., who now lives in Palmer, and Dave Berry, who lives in Anchorage, recently visited together at Berry’s home. “It was really good to see Ray,” said Berry. “I hadn’t seen him in quite a while.” The friends graduated in 1977 from Haines High School, and both were on the Haines High School wrestling team. Lewis, now retired, lived in Haines from 1962 until 2000, and volunteered for the Haines Volunteer Fire Department for almost 30 years. Berry lived in Haines from 1957 through 2016. His family owned the Food Center, which used to be located where the Veteran’s Center now stands. He also worked for Chilkoot Indian Association, Chilkat Indian Village, and Olerud’s Market. “You had to do what you had to do down there to survive,” Berry said. Both men said they appreciated seeing each other after many years living in different parts of the State. “Those of us who grew up in Haines do what we can to stay in touch,” Lewis said.
To celebrate the Haines Borough Library’s Haines Reads A Million accomplishment of 500,000 pages, six participants were drawn to win gift certificates to local businesses. On the same day, a book was painted on the Haines Reads A Million sign to signify another 20,000 pages read. At every 100,000-page milestone six winners are drawn, and at every 20,000 page milestone a book is painted on the sign. As of press-time 540,741 pages have been reported. “We’ve seen amazing participation and we are so grateful for everyone who reported their pages,” said library director Carolyn Goolsby. “That is a lot of pages for a town of this size.”
The Mosquito Lake School Community Center raised over $800 on Saturday during their outdoor farm-to-table dinner. Participants feasted on bread baked by Josie Nelson and delicious vegetable soup prepared with produce grown on-site in the Mosquito Lake Community Victory Garden. “It was wildly successful,” said Erika Merklin. The Community Center is also planning to host Community Day on August 15, which will include a rummage sale.
Linus Platt has finished building his hand-made camper, which he calls The Raven Truck House. The camper took 8 months to complete, and he plans on living in it when he relocates to Fairbanks next spring. It is equipped with a diesel heater, a wood stove, interior custom woodwork, and a liquid rubber roll-on roof.
The American Bald Eagle Foundation has been taking advantage of a season of limited visitors to dive into projects. Staff have been building new dynamic perching for the aviaries and have created a new training space. “We had 2x4s for perches,” said executive director Cheryl McRoberts. “We are replacing them with natural material.” Sidney Campbell, raptor program manager, said the closer they can get to a natural habitat the better it is for the birds’ feet. A space in the education room has been converted into a training space for travel practice destination and free flight-testing. “One way to test if a behavior is really strong is to test it in a novel location,” said Campbell. “We use this as a steppingstone for free-flight.”