(City and Borough of Juneau photo)

(City and Borough of Juneau photo)

Neighbors Briefs

Registration for Parks & Rec summer camps opens April 1

The City and Borough of Juneau Parks and Recreation department will offer several weeklong day camps throughout the summer for children ages 5–13. Online registration opens Monday, April 1, at noon (click the “Youth & Teen” tab).

Each weeklong camp costs $118.75-$170 + tax. A total of 178 spaces are available.

Camps are offered at Zach Gordon Youth Center and Dimond Park. Each weeklong ZGYC camp focuses on a different theme, including arts and crafts, hiking and the outdoors, sports and games, including real-world DnD. Schedules range from morning- and afternoon-only camps to all-day sessions.

Meanwhile, the Dimond Park Adventure Camps combine swimming and water games at Dimond Park Aquatic Center (DPAC) with activities at Dimond Park Field House and surrounding trails. Please note that, unlike ZGYC summer camps, campers must be dropped off at DPAC and picked up at the Field House.

Find complete camp descriptions and details on ZGYC’s summer camps page.

Scholarships are available for all camps. Contact Recreation Coordinator Amanda Lovejoy at (907) 586-2635 ext. 4156 or amanda.lovejoy@juneau.gov for more information on how to register with a scholarship.

For more information about ZGYC summer camps, contact Zach Gordon Youth Center’s Mike Williams at Michael.Williams@juneau.gov or (907) 586-2635.

For more information about Dimond Park Adventure Camps, contact Dimond Park Field House at DimondParkFieldHouse@juneau.gov or (907) 364-3734.

BRH Foundation Accepting Health Sciences Scholarship applications

The Bartlett Regional Hospital Foundation is accepting applications for the Grace and Phil Edelman Health Sciences Scholarship for the 2024-2025 academic year. The application deadline is May 24. Application requirements and supporting information is available online at brhfoundation.org/scholarships or by calling the foundation at (907) 463-5704.

Scholarships are awarded to eligible applicants seeking health sciences professional degrees at accredited educational institutions. Applicants shall demonstrate both outstanding academic performance and leadership among their peers, and an intent to return to Southeast Alaska to practice.

Since 2009, the foundation has awarded over $350,000 to Southeast Alaska students seeking degrees in health sciences fields through the Edelman Scholarship Endowment.

Juneau Pools To Offer Lifeguard Class April 12-14

Parks and Recreation Juneau Pools will offer a lifeguarding class on April 12-14 at Dimond Park Aquatic Center. Participants who successfully complete the class will earn an American Red Cross Lifeguard Certification, valid for two years. Registration opens Friday, March 29, at 8 a.m. and closes on Thursday, April 11, at noon. Register online via the Parks and Rec registration catalog (under the Juneau Pools tab).

The class will be held on Friday, April 12 from 4–8 p.m. and Saturday, April 13, through Sunday, April 14, from 9 a.m.–5:30 p.m. daily, with an hour-long lunch break included.

Class fees are $250 for general participants, but free for those who submit an application for employment as a Juneau Pools lifeguard at the end of the course. The class is open to a maximum of 10 people.

Prerequisites: Complete a pre-course session in the pool prior to the first day of class. The pre-course includes a 300-yard swim, brick retrieval from 10 feet, and treading water for two minutes. Must be 15 years old by the last day of class.

For more information contact Seth Cayce at (907) 586-0839 or seth.cayce@juneau.gov.

Mudrooms seeking nonprofit beneficiaries for Season 13

Mudrooms is looking for nonprofit organizations to select as beneficiaries for Season 13. Each event typically raise about $1,500 after expenses. Those selected will be the profit recipient for two shows next season.

In one to two pages, provide background about your organization and explain how it would benefit from receiving Mudrooms funds. To be eligible an organization must be a recognized nonprofit, and do the majority of its work in Juneau or Southeast Alaska, or earmark the funds for use in Juneau or Southeast Alaska.

Applicants must also answer a list of questions and agree to conditions for Mudrooms events. Details are at https://www.facebook.com/mudrooms.

Applications should be submitted via email to mudrooms.juneau@gmail.com and are due by March 31. The Mudrooms StoryBoard will consider applications, and announce selections via email and on our online platforms soon thereafter.

Forest Service employees from the Alaska Region visit Juneau for orientation

April in Juneau can mean many things. It’s springtime, cruise ship time, whale watching time, and now U.S. Forest Service employee orientation time.

For the second year, Alaska’s capital city is hosting dozens of the newest employees hired with the Forest Service and the Alaska Region.

From April 2-4, up to 100 newly minted agency workers and about a dozen orientation presenters will gather at the Centennial Hall for a three-day, in-person orientation about the agency, its history, workforce, mission, values, relationships, and priorities.

The orientation-goers call communities on or near the Chugach and Tongass National Forest, including Juneau, home, with remote workers based outside of Alaska making the trip north to attend as well.

“We hired about 175 new employees last year,” said Acting Regional Forester Chad VanOrmer. “With so many new hires, offering a robust Forest Service orientation for them made sense and doing it in Juneau was a given.”

The in-person orientation includes special panel discussions on the agency’s strategic priorities of sustaining our nation’s forests and grasslands, delivering benefits to the public, applying knowledge globally, and excelling as a high-performing agency.

Also, like last year, a tribal partner panel with guest speakers from tribes and corporations based in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska will take center stage on day three of the orientation to share the unique and inspiring story of Alaska’s Indigenous Peoples.

More in Neighbors

Nine-hour pork roast ready for serving. (Photo by Patty Schied)
Cooking for Pleasure: Nine-hour pork roast with crackling

For a few months now I have been craving an old-fashioned pork… Continue reading

Laura Rorem. (Courtesy photo)
Living and Growing: The power of real hope

Highly compatible, Larry and my strength was in our ability to merge… Continue reading

Twin rainbows are seen from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center on Wednesday. (Laurie Craig / Juneau Empire)
Neighbors briefs

Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center shifts to winter hours The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor… Continue reading

(U.S. Forest Service photo)
Living and Growing: Common ground. Common kindness.

I write this piece from the perspective of one who believes in… Continue reading

A clean home is a cozy home. (Photo by Peggy McKee Barnhill)
Gimme A Smile: Procrasti-cleaning anyone?

I just wiped off the tops of my washer and dryer, and… Continue reading

Priest Maxim Gibson is the rector at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Juneau. (Photo provided by Maxim Gibson)
Living and Growing: Restored icons — image and likeness

This past month at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, we had the… Continue reading

Roger Wharton is former Episcopal priest in Juneau. (Courtesy photo)
Living and Growing: 10 things you can do to be happy

What is happiness? What makes you happy? Can you increase your happiness?… Continue reading

Adam Bauer of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Bahá’ís of Juneau.
Living and Growing: Environmental stewardship — a Baha’i perspective

To begin, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge that… Continue reading

Cars and homes flooded by the break of Suicide Basin’s ice dam in August. (Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management photo)
Living and Growing: After the flood

It is Ordinary Time, the Season of Increase, the Season of Creation.… Continue reading

Kueni Ma’ake, Ofeina Kivalu, Jaime and Alanna Zellhuber, Aubrey Neuffer and Mary Fitzgerald of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Juneau serve meals to those affected by this month’s flooding of the Mendenhall River. (Photo provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Juneau)
Living and Growing: A life hack for happiness in a flooding river of change

Fall is upon us and with it change. School is starting, leaves… Continue reading