Elias Glabek Ryan was born Feb. 15 to Jolanta and Brad Ryan in Portland, Ore. Elias weighed 8 lbs., 10 ozs. and joins big brother Atlin. The family stayed with Brad’s parents, Cecil and Joyce Ryan, in Rainier, Ore. and enjoyed spending time with Brad’s sister, JoAnna Thompson, and her family, who live next door. The Ryans are home in Haines and getting help from Joyce, who traveled north with the family.
Irene Sparks Rowan was inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame for “Leadership and Activism in Alaska Native Affairs.” Rowan was a prominent leader during the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, served as president of Klukwan, Inc. in 1975 and was special assistant to the Secretary of Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior. Irene, a former member of the Haines Presbyterian Church, graduated Haines High School in 1959.
Middle school wrestlers Kai Hays and Zane Durr competed at the state middle school wrestling tournament in Fairbanks March 2-3. The tournament included 29 schools from throughout Alaska and over 500 wrestlers. Both boys placed in the regional tournament in Juneau in February. Kai Hays placed fifth in the state for the 160-pound weight class, winning four and losing two matches. Zane competed at 115 pounds and finished with a win and two losses. Wrestling coach Dennis Durr and Kai’s dad Ed Hays made the trip.
When your birthday comes around every four years, you make sure to celebrate. In Haines, leap year birthday girl Janine Allen celebrated her sixth “birthday” with carrot cake and dinner. Libby Kurz celebrated number 13 with lunch at a local restaurant and declared, “I’m proud to be a teenager now!” Fuzzy VonStauffenberg was in California and celebrated her 15th with eight days in the Monterey Bay area. Earlier in the week, she celebrated the first birthday of grandson Gavin Welch, the son of her son Austin Welch, and stayed next door to daughter Ashley Martin and family in La Selva Beach. Fuzzy’s party included childhood friends. Eric Kocher celebrated his 16th birthday with friends and a party at the home of Kay Clements. Leap couple Alexandra Feit and Bud Barber marked their first wedding anniversary with a snowshoe down Chilkat State Park Road to the cabin, where they enjoyed a picnic lunch with friends and watched a cow moose in the bushes. Alexandra and Bud were married at the cabin.
Deb and Jim Stanford hosted family recently. Daughter Jaime Bentley and her family visited from Central Point, Ore. and played in the snow. Jaime’s husband Jeff Bentley, a physician assistant, took the Wilderness Advanced Life Support class held in Haines, during their stay. They brought baby Cyrus, five months, and daughters Taelyn, 5, and Jema, 2, to play with their grandparents and uncle Coleman Stanford, who came up from Juneau with friend Amber Long and Amber’s daughters Ariel and Grace. The girls all skied on Mosquito Lake Road with Deb, and Ariel celebrated her fifth birthday at the home of great-grandmother Olive Jackson.
Melissa Aronson took her doctor’s advice and soaked up six weeks of sunshine to boost her Vitamin D levels on the Big Island of Hawaii. Family and friends, including Haines resident Margaret Piggott, joined her. Carol Tuynman visited Melissa for a week as did Frank and Ramona Holmes. She saw Judy and Terry Jacobson at their home south of Kona and also spent a week with Liz Marantz-Falvey and Mike Falvey at their family property. Melissa visited organic farms and gardens and toured the Natural Energy Lab with Frank and Ramona. Melissa is teaching a permaculture class this spring.
Jayden Rettinger represented Haines in the 2012 Alaska State Spelling Bee in Anchorage last week. The fourth grader was number 51 of 148 spellers at the Alaska Center for Performing Arts. While it was “cool being up on the big stage,” Jayden admitted being nervous before the estimated crowd of 1,000 in the audience. He was stumped in the first round by “romeo.” Jayden studied every day up to the bee. The trip included his first plane ride and a stay in a 13-floor, downtown hotel with dad Jason Rettinger.
Cynthia Allen is home from two months of traveling. She was in Farmington, N.M., with husband Russ Lyman, who is in a physical therapy assistant program there. She also spent 10 days in Texas at a meditation retreat center. While Russ remains in New Mexico, Cynthia is sending a little Haines his way in the form of digital birthday cards from friends.
D.D. Wallum spent seven weeks in Haines with daughters Laurie and Lisa Sele and new grandbaby George Scott Shove, born in January. She stayed with Lisa, where she helped decorate the nursery with new curtains and even took night shifts so the new parents, Lisa and Kevin Shove, could catch up on sleep. She also spent time with brother Greg Horner and his family. She joined Greg, Leigh and Elena Horner on an afternoon snowshoe to the Rutzebeck Lake. D.D. lives in Iroquois, S.D.
Diana and Jerry Pyle are home from four months of traveling where they “drove way too much, and had a great time with children and grandchildren.” They spent Thanksgiving with their daughter and her family in North Carolina, and took in a few new shows in Las Vegas. In Palm Springs they met up with Sue Folletti and her mother Jean Clayton, who were staying in the same condo complex. They visited Diana’s sister in Tucson, spent Christmas in Austin, Tex. with their son, and were in Houston with their daughters, their husbands and five grandchildren. They also met up with their “old domino group,” former colleagues from Eastern New Mexico University, in Portales, N.M., and continued to Texarkana, Texas to see their son. Jerry and Diana were happy to have Jenny Moiso and John Etheridge housesit while they were away.