Juneau’s Mariya Lovishchuk was awarded a sabbatical next year in recognition of her long history of community service. The Rasmuson Foundation will support her organization, The Glory Hall, so Lovishchuk can take three to six months to recharge after more than a decade of long hours.
Lovischuk said running a 70-person emergency shelter means she’s on-call all the time, and something is always happening.
“In 11 years, I have not had a single day of boredom,” she said.
Lovischuk says she plans to spend time outside, including a kayak trip around Prince William Sound and mushroom hunting on her property in Haines. She has plans for a trip to Chicago with her child.
She said she knows her team at Glory Hall will be fine without her for a little while. The rules of the sabbatical state that she can have no contact with work for the whole time.
And as for being selected?
“Definitely feeling like a little bit of impostor syndrome. Like, you know, super, super honored. But also just kind of like wow, like it’s really hard to believe that,” she said.
Lovischuk said she’s proud of all Glory Hall’s partnerships in Juneau, but the Juneau Housing First project feels special — it’s 64 units of housing for people who are chronically unhoused in Juneau.
“Every time I walk into this building, they just, they feel really good about what they’ve been able to accomplish,” she said.
Lovischuk plans to start her sabbatical next spring in mid-May or mid-June. She will take about five months off.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Mariya Lovishchuk’s last name and misstated the number of units in Juneau’s Housing First facility. It is 64. And Lovishchuk has only one child.
