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Through recent surveys, Kinder Skog families and Petersburg Medical Center employees showed interest for more summer enrichment options for youth, and the Community Wellness program of PMC has worked to meet that demand. More camps will be offered through the ORCA (Outdoor Recreation Creation Adventure) program in Petersburg this summer, including a kayaking expedition, fly-fishing, and an extra session of theater. The POD (Play Outside Days) programs will include running and basketball again,...
The middle school wrestling season just officially wrapped up, although for the Mitkof Vikings it was over a couple weeks ago since none of our wrestlers were able to pay their way to state. That was especially disappointing for Drew Beavers, who placed 2nd at the regional meet in Ketchikan. Looking back at the season, Petersburg hosted the Stikine Invitational meet less than two weeks after winter break, and Viking wrestlers performed strong against the fifty or so visiting wrestlers. In the...
Dino Brock has decided to resign as the head high school girls basketball coach in Petersburg, where he's coached for 29 years of his 31-year coaching career – the first two were in his hometown of Wrangell. When asked what led him to the decision to step away, he said, "Sometimes you just know it's the right time ... There've been stages I thought I was ready, but I wasn't." Growing up in Wrangell, Brock figures he played basketball 300 days a year on the uncovered court outside the housing pro...
Roller derby took a knee when COVID-19 hit, and it's been slow to get back up to speed, not only in Petersburg, but across Southeast and the state. But lately, after a recruitment push new skaters - "fresh meat" the derby squad calls them - are joining the Ragnarok Rollers in Petersburg. Out of Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Sitka, and Juneau, Juneau is the only other town in southeast that has put a full team back together. Experienced Petersburg skaters like Deck 'Em (Victoria Moore), and...
Derek Gibb, a 1999 PHS graduate, traveled last month back to his alma mater, Auburn University in Alabama, to be recognized along with his team for their NCAA title for swimming in 2003. He hadn't seen most of his teammates in 15 years, but the majority of them were there. There was a reception for the alumni, then a recognition ceremony on October 28th at the Auburn football game in front of 88,000 people. "It was cool to see everyone after so long . . . they're all successful with families."...
Jaime Cabral, Dean of Students and Activity Director of Petersburg Middle/High School, recently received statewide recognition for his commitment to kids. Nominated by Katie Holmlund and Becca Madsen of Kinder Skog, Cabral rose to the top of 22 other nominations from across the state to become Petersburg's first ever recipient of this award. Earlier in the year, Holmlund and Madsen had been named Afterschool Superheroes by the Alaska Children's Trust. When the call for nominations came out for...
The Mitkof Mummers are setting the stage for their upcoming play, "McQuadle: A Dragon's Tale." With performance dates of November 9, 10, and 11 just weeks away, director Tiffany Glass aims to be off-book soon, meaning everyone should have their lines memorized. Three performances, instead of the usual two, is part of a new Mummer's fundraising goal: to replace the worn-out seats in the auditorium. The Mummers' costume sale in the Elk's Ballroom earlier this month was also for that long term goal...
In his days coaching the Petersburg High School cross country team, Klas Stolpe often urged the team to do another lap on the track or up the water tower hill, running every mile with the team, and sometimes running backwards to face his runners and yelling, "You guys are doing great, let's do one more." If a runner had any glimmer of energy left in them, coach Klas saw it and urged it out. Recently, Klas Stolpe ran 44 miles to bring awareness to prostate cancer, which his brother Jim has been...
Petersburg's new Rotary Youth Exchange student from Hungary, Sara Eszik, says she's "really happy to be in Alaska." She had requested the U.S./Canada, followed by Finland and Taiwan. "I feel like I got kind of a two-for-one between the U.S. and Finland, getting to come to Alaska," Eszik muses. "I don't feel homesick at all," declares Eszik, explaining that there are four stages to the experience of a typical exchange student. In the first stage, everything feels good and exciting, with little...
Bo Varsano and Marja Smets of Farragut Farm won Farm Family of the Year at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer last week, the first Southeast farm ever to do so. Smets says they were surprised to hear they'd been nominated and selected for the award. "I think it's super cool to bring awareness to agriculture down here. People in the interior are like, 'Wow, there are farms there?'" In the Alaska State Fair announcement, Alaska Division of Agriculture Director Bryan Scoresby said, "Bo and Marja...
Jolie Norman, the new first-grade teacher at Stedman Elementary, and fellow first-grade teacher Erin Hofacre pushed a lot of furniture around Ms. Norman's classroom yesterday, and they have more to do before school starts. "In a week, you won't recognize this place. I'm looking forward to making it my own," promised Norman. And in making it her own, she's excited to make it a place kids want to be and a place they want to learn. In addition to her longtime calling to work with kids, Norman...
Early in the season, one of my deckhands started the joke, “Pay to Bay,” dreaming of people paying money to fish on a drift boat in Bristol Bay, like people pay to climb Mt. Everest. That joke came around to bite us. We had a breakdown during the peak of the run, then the day we got fishing again Trident posted the 50-cents/lb base price (before quality incentives amounting to another 30 cents or more). The processor we sell to, Silver Bay, seemed sure to follow Trident’s lead. I sent my deckhands home with checks for $5,000 each—not much fo... Full story
Since last September, the Elks Lodge has provided $25,000 in meals to support local youth fundraisers, $26,000 to locals in need, and $20,000 in volunteer time and other associated costs of running their kitchen and dining hall. That all started with a $7,500 grant from the State Elks Association. When that grant ran out, all the costs shifted to being absorbed by the local lodge. "We expect to get another grant, but until then we can just absorb the cost, since all of this falls under our...
Pete and Chelsea Keutmann of Petersburg's Sea to Shore Seafood Company recently won a Good Food Award for their smoked pink salmon tins. The national award from the Good Food Foundation recognizes food producers who bring together the principles of social and environmental responsibility and exceptional craftsmanship and flavor. The product prepared by Tonka Seafoods beat smoked tinned king and sockeye salmon in a blind tasting. Chelsea remembers, "When Pete said, 'I want to try smoking and cann...
Brad King, the current principal at the K-12 school in Gustavus, visited Petersburg over the weekend as a candidate for secondary school principal. He's lived in Southeast Alaska ten years, serving as principal in Hydaburg and then Gustavus. Before that he was the district curriculum coordinator in the Fairbanks school district. A teacher for 14 years before turning to administration for the last 19, King still tries to teach a class at every school he works at. He's taught social studies, Germa...
The Lighthouse Assembly of God church is a well-loved landmark in Petersburg, both to those who attend service there and to those who simply enjoy the sight of it. Inside, there is a large stage that hosted live music for a good part of the Assembly of God's 75th anniversary celebration service Sunday night. The anniversary program included much standing and clapping, with a few chances to sit down and hear some of the stories that have come out of the church over the years. The Assembly of God...
It was standing room only at the Helmi Jenson community room of the public library last Wednesday, where the attractions were practically flying off the shelf. Jake the red-tailed hawk and Owlison the great horned owl were in the house, accompanied by avian director Jenn Cedarleaf and avian care specialist Hannah Blanke from the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka. Invited as part of the Rainforest Festival, they had visited Petersburg schools for kids from preschool through high school, appeared for...
Petersburg Dental has expanded into the entire first floor of 806 South Nordic Dr, remodeling and adding new equipment into an area which was formerly used as a bed and breakfast, the kitchen of which has become the dental lab, with various testing equipment as well as tools for building and adjusting artificial tooth implants, dentures, and mouth guards. Dr. Jay Lister now has an office instead of just a corner of the lab, and there is an ADA-compliant accessible bathroom. A staff breakroom ove...
Jane Smith spotted a different kind of bird at her feeder around New Year's, something she knew she'd never seen in Alaska. Her sister, Anne Smith, saw it again during the annual Great Backyard Bird Count in February and identified it as the white-winged dove. She took a picture with her iPad and posted it on the Alaska Rare Bird Alert Facebook page, but her post didn't draw much response, so she figured the bird wasn't too special. Weeks later, Jennifer Cross, director of the Alaska Raptor...
Icicles bristled from the eaves outside the Elks Lodge on Saturday night, but the atmosphere in the ballroom was balmy, tropical, even. The walls sprouted jungle vines, leaves, and bright flowers, and the dancers sprouted bright feathers, leis, and sunglasses. Even the elk heads on the wall wore sunglasses. Over 200 people bore witness as bodies bounced to Latin rhythms, and whiffs of salt and lime and street tacos wafted. That was Hannah Flor's vision, "A transition from one world to another,...
The Southeast Alaska Farmers Summit is back in Petersburg this week for the first time since it began in 2015. It will take place at the Holy Cross House of the Lutheran Church, and Friday's presentations are free and open to the public. Attendees are just asked to sign in at the entrance, as attendance numbers will help with future funding. Bo Varsano and Marja Smets of Farragut Farm founded the summit as a way for Southeast farmers to connect and learn from one another about producing local...
The Alaska Rural Water Association (ARWA) has named Petersburg Alaska's Wastewater System of the Year for 2022. "Petersburg stays on top of routine maintenance and keeps their certifications up to date. Not everyone does that," said Mark Wuitschick, who nominated Petersburg and works at ARWA as the Wastewater Training and Technical Assistance Specialist. Petersburg also goes beyond the minimum requirements, and the award highlighted efforts at composting removed solids, which the Petersburg...
There are three not-so-new medical providers seeing patients at Petersburg Medical Center. Dr. Alice Hulebak is back, and her husband Erik Hulebak is now a Physician's Assistant (PA). Also, Angela Menish has completed her education and is now working as a nurse practitioner. Dr. Alice Hulebak has worked at Petersburg Medical Center before, from 2010-2013, but moved back to Albequerque, New Mexico for her husband to attend PA school. Most recently they worked in Kalispell, Montana but had been... Full story
The Sound Science Research Collective returned to Five Finger Lighthouse again in the summer of 2022. And earlier this month they shared some results from their 2019 field season in an online presentation for the Five Finger Lighthouse Society by Dr. Leanna Matthews, detailing their playback study with humpback whales. "Usually when people think about whale song, they think about humpback song, but song is not the only thing they do. Song is produced on the breeding grounds, on those lower...
Dr. Mark Tuccillo has practiced family medicine in Petersburg since 1993 and soon plans to taper toward retirement starting at the end of October 2022. Growing up in New Jersey, his grandfather glorified Alaska, where he had crash-landed as an aviator with the Army Air Core, forcing him to walk over a week to the nearest village. "He had us all hooked talking about dogsledding and polar bears," Tuccillo remembers. "It was sensationalism, but it stuck with me." Certain he would become a doctor, t...
