Chevy Fowler and Kai Sato-Franks are the managers for the University of Alaska Fairbanks men’s basketball team, the Alaska Nanooks, reports Chevy’s mother, Christy Tengs Fowler. Their duties include setting up and assisting in drills, keeping team statistics, filming and scorekeeping. Chevy and Kai, both freshmen, also formed an intramural basketball team called, “Hoops, I Did It Again.”
More than 30 people attended the fourth annual Chilkat Forest Investigators mushroom dinner at the school Oct. 29. Attendees feasted on Mario Benassi’s traditional Italian creamy sauce made with wild mushrooms. The event raised about $650, said Takshanuk Watershed Council executive director Meredith Pochardt. Funds go toward buying field guides, including a bird guide, for the children in the CFI program.
A film crew was in town recently filming two local couples for the Discovery Channel reality TV show “Buying Alaska.” Genny and Harry Rietze as well as Alisa Beske and Bryan Harmon were filmed looking at different houses for sale around town. Neither couple is in the market for a home, they said. Also filmed was Haines Real Estate sales agent Dave Long, who was showing the houses. Five of the properties filmed are Haines Real Estate listings, said broker Pam Long. Another is being sold by an independent party. Properties include ones on Beach Road, Chilkat Lake and at Porcupine. Genny said the episode may air sometime this winter.
Laurie Forrest is back in Bend, Ore. after spending four months in town working on her master’s thesis research. She’s a student at Oregon State University. Her research focused on the relationship between bears and berries in the Southeast Alaska ecosystem, specifically in the Chilkoot and Kelsall river systems. She used electric fences to keep bears out of devil’s club patches to see what, if anything, ate those berries besides bears, she said. She also counted the berries left behind at the end of the season to see what percentage of berries were consumed when bears are present and absent from the system.
Tourism director Leslie Ross attended the Alaska Media Road Show in Santa Barbara, Calif. at the end of October. It was an “amazing opportunity for Alaska tourism organizations to match up with media and press to sell our town, events, and activities,” she said.
About 120 people attended the Halloween Monsters Ball at Harriett Hall, said Southeast Alaska State Fair director Jessica Edwards. Costume contest winners were Nels and Stoli Lynch, dressed as Aladdin and Jasmine, along with children, Lani and Silvia. Fair board president Eric Forster announced the honors during a break in The God Particle’s set. About 325 people attended the Harvest Party at the school, said Krystal Lloyd, an organizer of the event. “Well over” 100 people attended the Haines House of Horrors haunted house put on by the Uglys of Haines, said Ugly Tim Banks. He said that next year the Uglys plan to hold a fundraiser to help upgrade their props for the haunted house, which they put on for free for the public.
Donna Catotti’s art was accepted into The Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club’s 118th annual Open Juried Exhibition at the National Arts Club in New York City. Catotti’s painting “Waiting for the Wave” is of a young boy on a surfboard. The exhibition is open to the public Dec. 2–Dec. 19. The Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club is one of the oldest women’s art clubs in the nation. It was founded in 1896. The exhibition will include a variety of art created by female artists throughout North America and Europe.
Tracy Mikowski returned from a trip to hometown Traverse City, Mich., where family cheered her on as she completed a marathon. She wanted to run a marathon before her 50th birthday, which is this month. Son Ansel Wooters of Traverse City rode his bike alongside her for the entire course. Other family members held signs, cheered, and rode bikes throughout the course. While in Traverse City, Tracy also attended a book signing for her book, “Squirt the Otter,” about an orphaned river otter she raised. During a Skype chat, she got to see Squirt chasing minnows at his home at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, N.Y.
Henry Wong and Bruce Gilbert visited the historic Kennecott copper mine. It was closed in 1938 and has been taken over by the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The National Park Service is restoring the old mining buildings, and offers tours during the summer, Henry said. Henry hiked up to the mining ruins.