• The Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) Juneau Pride Chorus celebrated its 22nd year with a concert themed “It Takes a Village” on April 27.
The concert was the culmination of months of rehearsals lead by Choral Director Kathleen Wayne, who not only conducted our choir but also shared her vast experience in vocal technique, resulting in new skills and an enriched performance.
We also are grateful to Jacque Farnsworth, our wonderful pianist, for lending her great musical talent and inexhaustible patience. Thank you both for your dedication, commitment, and for sharing your joy of music.
The PFLAG Juneau Pride Chorus thanks Resurrection Lutheran Church for providing weekly rehearsal space and Northern Light United Methodist Church for providing the performance venue. Thank you to Pat McLear for serving as our emcee, Betsy Sims for providing sound, Dan Wayne for recording the concert, Jeanette St. George for designing the concert poster and tickets, Luke Weld (electric piano) and John Haywood (saxophone) for your wonderful accompaniment, Robin Brenner for American Sign Language interpretation, Randy Burton for his photography, Jayne Andreen for stage management, and Mary Willson and Pat White for providing powerful spoken words. Thank you to Capital City Weekly, Juneau Empire, Juneau Radio Station and KTOO for getting the word out about our concert.
The PFLAG Juneau Pride Chorus also thanks the following businesses for supporting us by donating to the silent auction that was held during our concert: Lituya Art, El Sombrero, Kindred Post, Annie Kaills, the Alaska Club, Pilates Bodies, Salon Cedar, Douglas Café, Seongs, Suwanna Thai Cafe, Valley Paint, NorthStar Trekking, Coastal Helicopters, Wings/Taku Lodge, Coppa, Healing Touch Alaska, A Dance of Hands massage, Energy Works, Cheri’s Therapeutic Massage, Gross Alaska Theatres, Above & Beyond Alaska, Chef Stef and numerous individual donors.
Our thanks to the community of Juneau for its continued support of legal and social equality for people who are LGBTQ and their families, so that all people can work, study, play, pray, sing and live in a safe and healthy environment.
Joan Wilkerson
• Where would we be without community? A great community has its foundation in great citizens. Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School thrives on a model built around community, and we would like to thank Ed Page for being a role model for this kind of behavior. At DHMS, we work in small learning communities called “houses,” and we strive to include social emotional learning that takes the idea of the common good to heart. Luckily, we live in a place filled with people who exemplify the same traits we work to instill in our young middle school people. Ed is one of our Juneau community members who goes above and beyond to not only provide services around the state but who also gives back to our young Juneau community.
For the past three years, Ed has donated his time, boat resources and employee help to contribute to the Stikine House eighth grade backpacking adventure. This trip is a rite of passage for our students before they head to high school. The entire house backpacks four miles to a remote campsite that can only be accessed by foot or boat. Ed and the Alaska Marine Exchange have helped facilitate this process by delivering our food and some extra necessities via boat. Without their help, it would be nearly impossible to have the supplies to take care of 70-80 middle school students in the Southeast wilderness overnight.
Not only does Ed and his staff help out, but they always do so with a sense of adventure and visible joy. They are contributing to an opportunity for some of our children to backpack for the first time, camp for the first time and perhaps use the outdoor facilities for the first time. Without Ed’s help, these students might not feel that sense of accomplishment of hiking eight miles with a pack and heading out of middle school with more than an academic sense of accomplishment, but one of strength and inner achievement.
The DHMS Stikine House teachers and students are eternally grateful to Ed and the Alaska Marine Exchange for giving back to their community and doing so with such enthusiasm. No one can ever call Ed and his gang “stuck in the muds.”
Tracy Goldsmith,
DHMS Stikine House
• The Southeast Alaska Food Bank would like to thank the Juneau chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers for once again doing an amazing job during their annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive. This food drive, held on May 11, takes place nationally every year on the second Saturday of May.
Stamp Out Hunger is the largest single-day food drive in the nation, and members of the National Association of Letter Carriers selflessly take time out of their already busy days to collect food for those less fortunate in the communities they serve. The proceeds of this food drive are then donated to local Feeding America affiliated food banks.
This year, members of the National Association of Letter Carriers in Juneau collected over 4,000 pounds of nonperishable food for the Southeast Alaska Food Bank.
We’d like to thank everyone who donated food during this food drive, as well as Postmaster Susan Johnson, members of the National Association of Letter Carriers, mail clerks, and all postal employees who enthusiastically pitched in to get this food collected, sorted, weighed, and distributed to the Southeast Alaska Food Bank.
Special thanks to Jay Manlulu and Mark Piotrowski from the NALC for being the driving forces behind this food drive, and for the countless hours that they’ve devoted to making Stamp Out Hunger a huge success.
We’d also like to thank the United Way of Southeast Alaska, Streets of Juneau, KTOO, Juneau Radio Center and the Juneau Empire for helping to promote this great event, as well as Gil Aerni and Niko Mareko from World Wide Movers for helping transport these donations to the Southeast Alaska Food Bank.
Darren Adams,
Southeast Alaska Food Bank
