Sorted by date Results 326 - 350 of 454
It’s time for spring cleaning and the secondhand shopping that comes with it. The Anchorage Senior Activity Center is featuring a plethora of spring sales this April. The Giant Book Sale will feature an “amazing collection of every title imaginable,” according to the center’s website. Choose from a large selection of mediums including Alaskana, collectibles, puzzles, DVDs, CDs, records, videos and audiobooks. The sale will also feature a silent auction. The book sale will be held at the center on April 29 and April 30 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., M...
April is National Volunteer Appreciation Month, and at Alaska Regional Hospital, we are celebrating our amazing Auxiliary who serve our community. These incredible volunteers give generously of their time and talents to hospital patients, family members, employees and guests. They donated almost 6,000 volunteer hours during 2016. Volunteers serve in crucial roles at Alaska Regional. In almost every department, an Auxiliary member is providing a friendly face and helping hand. They are often the...
When looking back at her career in theater, Diane Benson shares its surprising beginnings. "I wanted to be a diesel mechanic," she reveals with a laugh. "I had no intention, no ambition to be in the theater. "I couldn't get funding to get into diesel mechanics school," she says. She went on to have an illustrious career as a truck driver, one of the first female tractor-trailer truckers on the Trans Alaska Pipeline. Fate took a peculiar turn when the Bureau of Indian Affairs popped up with a...
Every year before the early March start of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, longtime but now retired Anchorage Daily News photographer Jim Lavrakas goes to South Peninsula Hospital's Long Term Care Unit in Homer and shares a slide show of his times covering the Iditarod. "I covered the race nine times, four times from start to finish, all 1,049 miles from Anchorage to Nome," Lavrakas told his eager audience at last year's slideshow. "At first, I flew in a plane from checkpoint to checkpoint, but...
I'm sitting in the office of Turnagain Social Club, early on a foggy, frigid January morning, and I hear loud chomping. "Not to worry," I'm told by Kori Mateaki, owner and president of the facility. "That's just Bunsy, eating some old paperwork." Finished chewing, the biggest bunny I've ever seen comes thumping across the floor to nibble my shoe. "He's a Flemish Giant bunny," Kori tells me calmly, as if all offices should have such a bunny. He's a giant, all right, and he's wearing paper...
This year’s Fur Rendezvous Festival is celebrated Feb. 24 through March 5. Some of the many events include the Amateur Photo Contest; Charlotte Jensen Native Arts Market; the GCI Snow Sculpture Competition; the Rondy Grand Parade; fireworks show; the Running of the Reindeer; Rondy Melodrama; the Miner’s and Trapper’s Charity Ball; and the annual Pioneer Pancake Feed. The Anchorage Senior Activity Center has its own extensive Rondy activities schedule, including the Fur Rondy Model Contest; art show and reception; and the annual Fur Rende...
If I thought I was going to get a quiet, focused interview, I would have been wrong. These guys were here at the Anchorage Subway Sports Centre to play hockey. On this December morning, that was especially true of the star of the day, Howard Hansen, celebrating his 85th birthday. There'd be a surprise celebration for him before the game started in earnest. Howard meant business. I grabbed moments to talk with him, only when he came off the ice for line changes. Then he'd hurdle the boards and...
The 14th Annual Kenai Peninsula Senior Olympic Games will take place Feb. 21to 25 and will feature 12 events ranging from pinochle to ping pong and basketball toss to 8-ball pool, to name a few. The only requirement for participation is that you be 55 years of age or older and sign up with the nearest Kenai Peninsula senior center, says chairwoman, Bonnie Cain. "You do not have to already be part of a senior center to participate," Cain added. "You just need to register with your area's senior...
They were going to work on Monday morning, so they'd had their nails done, and special attention had been paid to their grooming on Sunday evening. Then early on a grey, grim November morning they waited inside the front doors of Anchor Lutheran School, taking up their post as welcoming greeters. Max and Nyxie, two English Black Labs, were jubilant, on the job. They are two of Dennis Morner's therapy dogs, and he has brought them to the school for over five years. He had been the pastor of...
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has published "Menadelook: An Inupiat Teacher's Photographs of Alaska Village Life, 1907-1932," which showcases nearly 100 photographs by Inupiat Charles Menadelook that document life in Kingigin (Wales) in the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia. The book, which was compiled and written by Menadelook's granddaughter Eileen Norbert, gives both a pictorial and Native perspective on Inupiat traditions and historical events, said SHI President Rosita Worl,...
Alaska Railroad (ARRC) will release its 2017 annual poster/print at three public sale-and-signing events featuring the print's creator, Wasilla artist Taffina Katkus, who will sign prints and posters. Folks who drop by can enter a free drawing for rail tickets. Wasilla Nov. 5, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., as part of the Mat-Su Holiday Marketplace event held at the Curtis Menard Memorial Sports Center (1001 S. Clapp Street) Anchorage Nov. 12, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Anchorage Historic Depot (411 W. 1st A...
“Celebrate Senior Veterans Week” returns this year to the Anchorage Senior Activity Center, featuring a week filled with information, recreation, companionship and remembrance. Here is the schedule, Nov. 7 through Nov. 10: Monday, Nov. 7: Information Fair, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8: Veteran Luncheon, sponsored by BP Alaska, Inc., noon to 1:30 P.M. Featuring special keynote speaker. Must have a ticket to attend. Wednesday, Nov. 9: Presentations, guest speakers and social hour Thursday, Nov. 10: Tournaments beginning at 10 a.m. Pool (10...
"I never expected this." That's how Laurel Downing Bill summarizes the turn her life took many years ago when she got a phone call from her sister, Meredith. "I've got some stuff here," her sister told her. "It's papers, clippings, photos from our aunt, Phyllis. You can come over and see what's here. If you want it, great. If not, we can pitch it." Their aunt, Phyllis Downing Carlson, a lifelong Alaskan, had died in 1993 at the age of 84. She'd been a school teacher and research librarian at...
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has received a large federal grant to revitalize the languages of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian in four Southeast Alaska communities. The $927,000 award from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) will fund four mentor-apprentice teams of Lingít (Tlingit), Xaad Kíl (Haida) and Sm'algyax (Tsimshian) speakers and students in Metlakatla, Hydaburg, Sitka and Juneau to study the languages over three years. The program, "Haa Shuká: Voices of Our An...
Residents of Marlow Manor Assisted Living in Anchorage were joined by an unexpected guest during a day visit to Anchorage's Botanical Gardens in late July. At the entrance, a sign warned guests to beware bears, which prompted lively joking, says Marlow Manor activities director Maria James. "We asked the admissions lady if there were any in the woods. She said yes, but not that day, because they were all fishing." But while the group was walking the trail, taking in the gorgeous surroundings...
"There wouldn't have been a CROP Walk for many years, if Kristi Johnson hadn't volunteered to chair it," says Paul Boling, senior minister of First Christian Church. Paul and his brother, Dave, associate minister at the church, stepped up to chair the Walk this year and last year, when Kristi needed a break. She'd been chair or co-chair for 10 years. "It's such a good event for the whole community," Paul states. "It's a fundraising walk to alleviate hunger, here and around the world. I know how...
Two of the most colorful governors of Alaska ran against each other three times. They were very different in philosophy and temperament but wanted the best possible Alaska for its citizens. “The Ticket” is a world premiere by Cyrano’s resident playwright Dick Reichman and is about an imaginary meeting between Wally Hickel and Jay Hammond. The play opens Sept. 9 at the award-winning historical Cyrano’s Off Center Playhouse at 4th and D in downtown Anchorage, and will continue with 7 p.m. showings on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays...
Fill a tote bag – hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, raincoat, umbrella, extra layer for warmth, rain boots, water bottle. Find the car keys and wallet and hop in the car. Destination - the Alaska State Fair! It wouldn’t be summer without at least one fair visit to marvel at giant vegetables, listen to bleating goats, crowing chickens, buzzing honey bees and enjoy local Alaskan fair foods like rhubarb-lemonade and fried, local peanut potatoes. State fairs have been part of American culture since the mid 1800s, providing education and ent...
Moving from Alaska to Minnesota was both difficult and easy. In a way, I figured I had done enough time in the Great Land and there are lots of wonderful things to see in the other 49 states. I spent nearly 49 years in the 49th state. I lived in Fairbanks from September, 1967 to August, 1976, when I moved to Anchorage. Moving to Minnesota was easy because I grew up in Faribault, graduated there, and my nephew still lives there. My grade school chum, Marie, still lives in Faribault. Moving to Minnesota was difficult because I made so many...
"It's a history book, a photo book and a memoir – all in one." That's how photographer and storyteller Jim Lavrakas describes his book, "Snap Decisions: My 30 Years as an Alaska Newspaper Photographer." He's just released a second edition of the book originally published in 2012, and has included some updated stories and new photos. Jim comments on his motivation for the book, when he first thought of putting it together back in 2010. "I had left the Anchorage Daily News as a staff p...
This year's 12th Alaska International Senior Games will be held August 12-21 in Fairbanks, with the opening ceremony and gala games kicking off at 6 p.m. at the Fairbanks-North Star Borough Birch Hill Recreation Area. The event begins with a torch lighting ceremony, lead by the senior athlete Bettie Upright, 101 year young! Since 2003, AISG has attracted participants from across the United States and several other countries to compete in everything from disc golf and road races to ice hockey...
It's a raw and rainy morning in June, rare among the many warm, sunny days served up for Anchorage this spring and early summer. It's not the kind of day anyone would delight in being outside – grey, damp and chilly. Downtown, people in raincoats, carrying seldom used umbrellas, scurry indoors. There is a place in downtown Anchorage whose doors are always open, 24/7, every day and every month of the year, no matter the weather. Covenant House Alaska has opened its doors for 27 years, working t...
Arlene Schmuland is an archivist who helps people access collections of photos taken in Alaska-photos of soldiers outside Quonset huts, photos of streets and towns the 1964 quake ripped and pulled to pieces, photos of the enlightened people who transformed a territory into a state. But the chief archivist for the UAA/APU Consortium Library Archives and Special Collections can't stop thinking about all the images the archives doesn't have: the ones tucked in albums, packed away in attics here...
Wilma Knox was 55 years old, and wondering if she and her husband, Robert, would have sufficient funds, facing retirement. She was also an adventurer. So instead of retiring, she took off on what she called "the adventure of a lifetime." It was 1975, and construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was just beginning. Why not head to the Arctic and take part in a project that was being compared to the building of the Panama Canal in complexity and stature? Wilma would work on the far northern...
