Everest Jon Jusi was born to Ariana Marquardt and Maxwell Jusi at the Juneau Birth Center at 4:50 p.m. on Jan. 4. Everest weighed 7 lbs., 8.5 ounces, and measured 22 inches. KINY news radio announced his birth as the first of the year in Juneau. Everest joins older sister Esme Jusi. Mom and dad give a big, heartfelt appreciation to volunteers who organized a meal train to help their transition home as Max returns to work as a full-time police officer.
John Svenson and wife Sharon were among residents who awoke to the sounds of the eruption of the undersea volcano near the South Pacific Island of Tonga around 4 a.m. Saturday. They walked out on the deck of their Chilkat State Park Road home to listen. “It was so unbelievable, it was actually spooky,” John said, describing the sound as a “sporadic rumbling of different intensities” punctuated by “crackling” sounds. “We’ve seen so many alien movies, we thought it was some kind of world event,” John said. “Not many things make my hair stand on end.” Andus Hale also heard the thundering, which lasted 10-15 minutes and was “unnerving,” he said. The sound of the eruption took eight hours at 700 miles per hour to reach Alaska, University of Alaska scientist Ken Macpherson told KTOO. NASA scientists estimated the power of the blast at 10 megatons, or 10 million tons of dynamite.
Patrick Price recently completed a 300-square-foot mural at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore., depicting a sunset ombré with a playful raven and fox. Patrick has been teaching formline art to K-12 students there. He also led a mural camp that completed a similarly sized mural at Peterson Barn Community Center. Hummingbird-designs murals to his credit are at Trackdown Studios in Eugene and Greenway Park in Beaverton. His work has been featured on public radio. Patrick lives with his partner Olive, dog Lucy and nine chickens outside Eugene.
Former resident Randy Smith died Sunday at age 71. Smith worked as a contractor in Haines in the 1980s and is the father of Christina Smith Baskaya and Jade Scheele. An obituary will be published in next week’s CVN.
Kathy Pardee-Jones reports husband Stan Jones, 90, is walking two miles a day and working on coordination with his pickleball racket following a Dec. 28 stroke. Jones is 90. Stan and Kathy are in Mesa, Ariz., where Stan is receiving physical and occupational therapies. Kathy says Stan’s goal is to play pickleball again. “That’s his focus.”
Thom Ely and Aimee Creelman met up with Russ Lyman and Cynthia Allen recently at a nightclub on Hawaii’s Big Island. Thom donated a bicycle in the name of the late David Simmons to 88bikes.org, which connects donors to individuals needing bicycles. Thom’s bike went to Rattana, a Filipino girl who aspires to become a school teacher.
Joe Parnell and Ed Daniels of Las Vegas teamed up to win the Las Vegas Winter Classic pickleball tournament in the amateur intermediate men’s 50+ competition in Sin City Jan 7-9. The tournament was held at Sunset Park, home of 24 pickleball courts. Joe also visited with former CVN reporter and editor John Glionna, a Vegas-based freelance journalist. He said he has also enjoyed spending time and creating felt art at the Red Rock and Rampart casinos.
Disc golf players Luck Dunbar and Jim Foster represented Haines at the Professional Disc Golf Association’s 2022 Big Island Open in Mountain View on Hawaii’s Big Island Jan. 15-16. Jim placed first in the amateur 50+ men’s division. Luck placed second among 10 competitors in the amateur 40+ men’s division. Seventy-two disc golfers participated. “Two Raven’s Bow Keg Bangers showed up and represented Haines and enjoyed every minute of it,” Luck said.
Tiffany DeWitt is scheduled to bring the Mount Edgecumbe High School girls’ C team to Haines at the end of this month. Tiffany and fiancé Ben Tong moved to Sitka in August, where daughter Brooklyn is an Edgecumbe student. Brooklyn is playing volleyball and basketball and recently sang in the honor choir in Ketchikan. Tiffany is working for a childcare connection agency based in Anchorage, teaching online classes and coaching JV basketball. Ben works as a radiology technician in Sitka and is finishing the family’s home there.
Trevor and Larissa Barrett enjoyed three weeks in Hawaii during the holiday break, with stays in Kauai and Maui. Besides snorkeling and hiking, highlights included dipping into the crystal clear water of Queen’s Bath, an ocean pool near Princeville on Kauai. On Maui they visited with Austin and Clarissa Neal. Austin works as an IT specialist for several Haines clients.