Kimberley Strong is running for the Sealaska Board as an independent candidate. “Sustainability of our traditional ways of living off the land is very important to me,” said Strong. “My vision for Sealaska is sustainable economic growth that creates employment and distribution opportunities for our shareholders.” Strong currently serves as tribal president of the Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan, chairman of the board of Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, and is a board member for the Alaska Native Health Consortium and the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center. Other applicable experience includes serving on the boards of Klukwan Inc, Chatham Regional School District, and Inside Passage Electrical Cooperative.
Ramie Carlson, who is moving from teaching kindergarten to teaching fifth grade at the Haines Borough School, is now officially certified as a special education teacher and interventionist for grades preschool through twelfth grade. To receive the certification, Carlson has been taking classes since the summer of 2016 to fulfill the 24-credit hour requirement. In addition, she completed a 140-hour field experience practicum this spring. Carlson said learning about the special education identification process will allow her to better advocate for her students. “I learned a lot about facilitating successful academic and behavior interventions,” Carlson said. “It will be useful as I move into my new role in fifth grade.”
Kayleigh Fisher and Jackie Martin’s Big Brothers Big Sisters Community Match was closed this month as Fisher graduated from Haines High School. They were matched on October 15th, 2008.
Valedictorian Marirose Evenden was a High School Big Sister through the BBBS School Based Program. Her match with 8 year old Taylor Hildre was closed in December of 2019 when Evenden finished her Haines High School classes. Although Big Brothers Big Sisters of Haines is inactive, there are currently eight local matches that resident Sarah Elliott supports as a remote Senior Match Support Specialist. She supports matches throughout the State for BBBS of Alaska, a position she has held since 2011.
Three Haines Borough High School students have been recognized in the 37th Annual Statewide Creative Writing Contest sponsored by the Anchorage Daily News and the University of Alaska. Atlin Zahnow’s story, “Mama and Fairy” was recognized as the winner for high school fiction. Lydia Andriesen’s memoir, “Karyn Rock” was recognized as the winner for high school non-fiction and her story “Don’t Think” received an honorable mention in the fiction competition. Aurora Alten-Huber’s poem, “Bay in January” received an honorable mention in high school poetry. Winning pieces can be read at http://www.litsitealaska.org.
Jason Eson, Bartek Pieciul and Jeff Moskowitz recently ski-traversed from Porcupine, up Flower Mountain, and down the Tsirku Glacier valley. Although the traverse often includes a section on the Boundary Glacier, the trio changed their course to avoid going across the Canadian border. They then packrafted down the Tsirku river from where river water was first exposed at the Le Blondeau Glacier to 20 Mile. The traverse was completed in 50 hours. “It was a push,” Eson said. “I think we maybe slept 9 or 10 hours total.”
The news staff from KHNS have been working from home for over two months, and reporters Claire Stremple and Henry Leasia paused this week to reflect on how the changes have affected their work. Leasia found he can adapt his schedule better to the schedules of the people he interviews as he is not restricted to the hours that he is in the office. “The workload is about the same, it’s just more effective,” Leasia said. Stremple said that although working from home has increased her ability to focus, she looks forward to recording stories out in the field again. “Those types of immersive stories with lots of sound, there is a difference in the immediacy that we lose when we record from home,” Stremple said. “It creates a little more distance, but we’ve been working hard to overcome it.”