Polly Bryant and Dylan Palmieri were married on Saturday, August 15 at the Valley of the Eagles Golf Course. Eddie Bryant walked his daughter down the aisle, and parents LaVerne Bryant and Greg and Anne Marie Palmieri attended the ceremony. Al Giddings married the couple. “He’s like family to me,” said bride Polly Bryant. Matrons of honor were Rebekah Green Reams and Jess Giddings Strutz, and bridesmaids included Mia Hines, Zoe Hamilton, Destinee Cowart, and Autumn Gross. Best man was brother Keegan Palmieri, and groomsmen included brother Brennan Palmieri and friends Itaaehau Tupou, Jasper Posey, Izak Miller, and Nate Reams. Flower man duties were performed by friend Carl Tupou. The bride wore a cream-colored linen button-down dress with black lace-up boots. In typical Southeast Alaska fashion, Saturday’s rain washed the words from the paper that held the bride’s wedding vows, and the best man and matron of honor held umbrellas to keep the couple dry during the ceremony.
Lily Jordan Curley was born to parents Doug and Iris Curley, measuring 20 pounds 4 ounces, and weighing exactly 7 pounds. She was born at 11:15 p.m. on Aug. 12 in Calgary, Alberta, where the family now lives. Grandparents are Chris and Deb Kemp of Haines and Jane and Terry Curley of Invermere, British Columbia. “We are so happy,” said mom Iris Curley. “She is named after my oldest friend, Jordan Barber.”
The Haines Borough Public Library has launched an Apples and Bears program in Haines, in which property owners and volunteers work together to keep fruit safely in the hands of Haines residents and out of the stomachs of local bears. The program is based on one by the same name in Missoula, Montana, where library activities coordinator Tracy Wirak Cassidy and executive director of The Great Bear Foundation Shannon Donahue met. “The biggest goal is to get all of the fruit out of the trees and off the ground,” said Wirak Cassidy. Inedible fruit goes to the Starvin Marvin garden or Haines Compost, and volunteers and property owners decide how to divide the edible harvest. Volunteer harvesters have been as young as 2, said Wirak Cassidy. “We’ll keep picking as long as there is fruit to pick.” To sign up as a volunteer or if you would like to have your fruit picked, contact Wirak Cassidy at the library.
Marnie Hartman and Niamh Moloney’s book “Pain Science – Yoga – Life – Bridging Neuroscience and Yoga for Pain Care” has just been published by Handspring Publishing Limited. A decade ago, Hartman met Moloney while studying pain in Nottingham, United Kingdom. “We became fast friends and connected further on the nerdy passion of pain science and yoga,” Hartman said.
Rustin Gooden survived a close encounter with a momma bear at the 10-Mile Haines Highway. He was on the last leg of a 50-mile bike ride when he noticed a large brown bear charging from 100 feet away. Gooden jumped off his bike to use the bike as a buffer and started yelling. “I swear I could smell the bear’s fetid breath as it stopped its charge within feet of me,” Gooden said. A second charge was disrupted by a passing car. “I’m convinced their car is what broke the bear’s second charge.”
Claire Stremple received a fellowship at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, which offers training, grants, and six months of mentoring to help journalists report deeply and authoritatively on the health, welfare, and well-being of individuals and communities, according to the USC Annenberg website. Although in-person classes at the campus is the usual, this year the program was hosted by Zoom due to the novel coronavirus. As part of the fellowship, Stremple is reporting on access to perinatal health for women in rural and remote Alaska. She chose the topic after recognizing the unique challenges rural Alaskan families experience during the pregnancy and birthing process, as women in rural Alaska typically travel to a town with a hospital at 37 weeks gestation. “I think of women here as never complaining about it,” Stremple said. “I thought that this is Haines normal, but this isn’t a typical birth experience for American women.”