For the third year, Holly Davis has organized a butterfly migration at the Haines library. She said kids build a “butterfly tree” using children’s book illustrator Eric Carle’s style of painting vibrant textures using brushes and sponges. Then, they cut the butterflies for the tree. She was helped by Ava Stanford, Lolly Minor, and Maren Billings. Davis says in the fall the butterflies on the tree will be replaced with leaves that children will also make.
Patty Brown recently spent time in west Texas on what she called a “solo pro-democracy tour.” Her kickoff was participation in a rally in Austin on March 28. She also visited the memorial honoring 21 children and teachers killed in Uvalde. Brown spent three days outside of the Dilley Family Detention Center protesting the conditions and prolonged stays by children and families. Brown went on to camp at Big Bend National Park. While there she joined locals at a rally protesting a border barrier in a sensitive riparian zone impeding access to the Rio Grande River for hundreds of miles.
American Bald Eagle Foundation director, Kathy Benner loaded up two bald eagles, Arden and Vega for a ferry ride to Juneau this week. Benner received permission from state and federal permittees to transport the eagles to get imaging and bloodwork.. This will set a baseline for their future medical needs. Benner has been taking eagles for X-rays for 20 years. She put her skills to work loading Arden and Vega into the dog kennels incident free and the two remained well-behaved for the journey. She was in the unique position to note that two adult eagles in a vehicle for a long time offered a distinct smell.
The Haines swim team competed in Juneau last weekend. Sydney Wray said everyone swam well. Sally Andersen was the sole Masters swimmer participating from Haines, and she “crushed it.” The ten and under boys Elias Mason, Dames Gregg, Stanley Johnson, Azeo Walsh and Aurora Mason achieved personal best times in all events they completed. McConnell Robinson scratched from day one and two only to continue on to a personal record in his 100m fly. Hazel Wray swam the 400 individual medley for the first time and managed four personal best times. Grady Robinson highlighted the meet – becoming a new Alaska State Swimming Championship qualifier in the 50 meter free with a time of 26.96. Robinson, Wray and McConnell Robinson will represent the Haines Dolphins at the end of the month in Anchorage.
The 51st annual Juneau Folk Fest once again inspired plenty of people to flock to Juneau from Haines. Some former Haines residents were spotted enjoying the festivities. Dr. Len Feldman played the accordion. John Hunt performed on the main stage playing auto harp and also ukulele. Katya Kirsch played banjo with 16 women on Saturday night. Tony Tengs was spotted by Tom Morphet enjoying the music as well as former CVN reporter Steve Williams and his wife Michele Drucker.
A few Haines folk-festers found themselves learning to cut a rug together at a popular clogging workshop taught by Annie Bartholomew and held at Centennial Hall. Nene Wolfe was part of the three piece band providing the music, she was on accordion. Leslie Evenden,, Mardell Gunn, Patty Brown, Lizzy Jurgeleit, Anna Jurgeleit and former Haines resident Andrew Cardella made up a few of the nearly 40 cloggers – yours truly included– who followed the step by step instruction on the clogging. They also practiced fundamentals of Appalachian flatfooting – some with more success than others.
Hannah Trujillo attended her very first Juneau Folk Fest. Trujillo says that her mom was a fiddle player. She loves fiddle music and she “had a hankering to dance.” This likely will not be her last trip to folk fest. Anna Jurgeleit has attended 10 folk fests so far. Her favorite band to perform over the years was “Texas Maniacs.” Tom Morphet has also attended 10. Nancy Berland says she has been to the event at least 25 times, but was out done by Berl Sheldon. He has attended at least 30. Both Berland and Sheldon agree that “Hot Club of Cowtown” was their favorite band to see during their history attending the festival. Mardell Gunn has only missed two folk festivals since 1995, and says that any year Rhiannon Giddens plays is the best year to attend.