Annie Bartholomew, KTOO

Big thanks to everyone who donated to KXLL during the 2013 Spring Pledge Drive. We raised $9,500 with money still rolling in. That total included 100 individual donors and almost 50 sustaining members! We couldn’t do it without you, Juneau.

Pint glasses and coffee are in, so stop by the station to pick them up. If you got a t-shirt or sweatshirt they’re still being custom made at Aurora Projekt, so stay tuned. Hats are also on the way.

If you missed out on the action, there’s still time to donate here and claim some of our cool prizes.

Keep fighting the good fight!

Local author Jean Rogers will be remembered Sunday for her contributions to Juneau’s arts community. The two-hour program will host musical performances and stories from the artists Jean supported during her life.

Jean Rogers is remembered for her children’s book, King Island Christmas, a true-story Rogers adapted from Alaskan artist Rie Munoz’s real-life experiences on the Bering Sea Island in the nineteen-fifties.

In the 1997, the story was made into a musical, first performed at Perseverance Theatre.  Nearly every Christmas season, musicians in Juneau bring the story to life. Now a group is taking Rogers’s story across the pond to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.

Directed by Missouri Smith, King Island Christmas will be among thousands of performances at the Fringe Festival this August. To stand out, the production has been renamed Alaska’s King Island Christmas and dedicated to Rogers.

Because if it wasn’t for her excitement and enthusiasm about the story when Rie told her, it never would have happened. -Sharon Gaiptman, Alaska’s King Island Christmas Organizer

To raise enough money for the 40 cast members, group organizer Sharon Gaiptman proposed an internet “kickstarter campaign” with a goal of raising ten-thousand dollars. Before the month was over, more than 100 online donors contributed 11-thousand thousand dollars.

Fundraising efforts for the production have included bake sales, school dances, garage sales, dinners, and even a loan from True North Federal Credit Union. The last fundraising opportunity will be a weekend of performances called Christmas in July before the group leaves for Scotland.

Rachel Saunders has been performing in the King Island Christmas Chorus since 2001. The Fringe Festival will be her 5^th  production.

When we’re up there singing to the audience, you just feel like you’re giving a gift to the community and we get so much more in return when we’re singing it.

The King Island Christmas Chorus will perform three numbers from the musical during Sunday’s memorial for Rogers including favorite, Agoodik Muktuk Salmon and Seal.

Roger’s daughter Sydney Fadaoff says donations from the memorial will go to Willoughby Arts Complex Fund in memory of Jean and George Rogers.

It was mom and dad’s dream for Juneau to have a performing arts center so I’m sure they would be very pleased to know that’s where the contributions will be going

“A celebration of life of Jean Rogers through the Arts” is Sunday, at 2pm at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.

Almost a year ago, Lia Heifetz and eleven others left their home of Juneau  to experience how the Pacific Ocean impacts the planet for “A Trip South.” From Douglas Island the team kayaked down the Inside Passage, camping on rocky beaches and working with the elements to safely paddle the series of straits and channels that connect southeast Alaska to western British Columbia and Puget Sound. Ninety-three-days later, the group arrived in Lady Smith Harbor on Vancouver Island where they transitioned to biking down the pacific coast towards Central and South America.

This Thursday, Lia and Lucy will be on KXLL to talk about the experience and their upcoming slide show event this First Friday at 7 p.m. at the Silverbow. Tune into “Annie on the Spot” at 4:00 to hear Lia discuss the upcoming event and find out where the “A Trip South” team is now.

Students from Discovery Preschool visited KTOO today to get a tour of the radio and tv facilities. During their tour they stopped by the Excellent Radio studio to sing songs and record a station ID.