Dozens of residents came out for the spring clean up, organized by the Haines Chamber of Commerce. Pete and Joan Degen were named Trash King and Trash Queen for collecting the most trash over the weekend “It’s really about her. I married into that,” said Pete Degen. “(Picking up trash) is a way of being for her.” The couple also won tickets to the Beerfest dinner. “We’re really looking forward to that because we’re beer drinkers,” said Degen. Among their finds was a full-sized aluminum canoe that they pulled off from Mud Bay Road near the spring, which has now been repurposed as a garden planter. Sixty-five bags of trash were turned in during the weekend hours the chamber was monitoring their trash collection truck, but chamber director Amanda Brandon said there were other bags dropped off after hours. She said the high schoolers picked up trash on Monday, Earth Day, and “pretty much cleaned up the whole town.” The weirdest piece of trash was a miniature pink toilet, Brandon said. All participants got a free prepaid CWS bag. The event was sponsored by Coeur Alaska, and Brandon said she hoped the borough would also chip in to help pay for the cost of dropping off trash.
The Haines student government contingent made up of Selby Long, MJ Hotch, Madeline Hart and Ezra Nash recently returned from a trip to the statewide student government conference in Utqiagvik. While at the northernmost city in the continent, the four got a taste of local wildlife and culture by caribou watching and learning about the tradition of harvesting bowhead whales. “Everything was pretty impressive. I’ve never seen so much flat land ever,” said Long, who also served as a regional representative for the Alaska Association of Student Government.
While weather has been unseasonably warm in April, Tom Morphet got cold on Saturday evening, getting submerged 12 times in ice-cold water as part of the state fair’s Spring Fling. Morphet volunteered for a ‘Dunk the Mayor’ event in which participants could pay $1 to throw a softball at a target. If the ball hit, a seat automatically lowered to drop Morphet into the water tank. “It’s a moment of terror because your seat just drops out,” said Morphet. “It’s like doing the polar swim ten times.” He said he only got through the 12 dips by taking breaks in the nearby furnace room. Fair director Amanda Randles said the whole event — which is a fundraiser and season kickoff for the fair organization — was a big success, despite a few minor speedbumps. “Next time we will try to make sure the water is warmer for Tom. We’re not trying to give him hypothermia, but he was a great sport,” she said.
Four Haines youth recently competed in Junior Olympics, the de facto state championship for Alaska in Anchorage. The Haines Dolphins crew was led by McConnell Robinson, a freshman who qualified in both the 50- and 100-meter freestyle competitions. Sita Price qualified in the 50 free, Jonah Wray and Lilah Wray also qualified in the 50 free competitions. “They had a good weekend, we had a couple best times,” said coach Sydney Wray. Coach Wray said state championships were something of a bonus after the team had set their sights on Southeast regionals, their last shot at making the state competition. “They learned a lot, getting to be there and watching a meet with that many swimmers at it, that much pageantry at it. The caliber of swimming was really cool for the kids to see,” she said.
Over 35 residents attended a will-writing workshop last weekend at the Haines Borough Public Library, according to organizer DeLise Keim. Heather Parker, of Alaska Legal Services, gave an in-depth presentation helping attendees to understand the importance and nuances of three end-of-life documents: the power of attorney document, an advanced healthcare directive and wills. Attendees left with fill-in-the-blank copies of the first two documents, and a list of resources to help complete the third.
Dozens of Haines school students participated in Bike to School Day which included an optional timed competition around a preset course in the soccer fields. The winner of that course was Finn McMahan, who completed the loop in 1:30. He was followed by JC Davis and Kaeden Ganey. The top seven finishers won a prize of a gift certificate to Rusty Compass.
The American Bald Eagle Foundation recently got a $2,500 boost from the Rasmuson Foundation to buy software for a new bioacoustics exhibit with a Collections Management Fund grant through Alaska Museums. “It’s an interactive program where guests can scroll through a pretty extensive list of species and look at specific sounds, explore spectrograms, and learn a little about the functionality of their song,” said Maia Edwards, assistant director of the foundation. The foundation was previously renting the program from the Cornell Ornithology Lab. The foundation will install a second monitor and will have permanent access to the interactive program now. Edwards said she’ll be working with interns and local students this summer to collect more sound recordings of local birds and photos that can be included in the program.
Haines bridge players had a successful run at the Haines Spring Sectional tournament at the ANB/ANS Hall over the weekend. Duo Roger Schnabel and Fred Shields narrowly took second overall in the three-day tournament, which brought 56 players from the Yukon Territories, Anchorage, and Seattle. Shields described the atmosphere as “one of concentration.” Shields has been participating in the tournament for 20 years, and recently traveled to Hawaii for a tournament. He said the players were “mostly older, and pretty good.” Stanley Jones, James Wilson, Debra Schnabel and Gregg Bigsby also participated in the tournament.
Madalena McNeil won a Gary Jacobson photo of a sow and two cubs during an auction benefiting Jenae’s Playground. McNeil bid $320 for a canvas print of the photo which she said she saw at Chilkoot Lake last year. “They were the first bear cubs that I’ve ever seen in the wild,” she said. McNeil said she plans to send it to her dad eventually, but for now she’s looking forward to hanging the print in her apartment.