Community

Standing outside a white food truck, nine-year-old Katrina Aitaoto handed out Styrofoam boxes of hot food to the people lined up in the rain in the parking lot of Juneau’s Salvation Army. Friday night’s menu was a classic: breakfast for dinner. 

She asked how many dinners each person wanted, and shouted the order back to her fellow volunteers in the truck. Most asked for more than one, for other people they were camping with.

Katrina was there with her youth group, from Aldersgate United Methodist Church. She said she didn’t mind spending her Friday evening in the pouring rain.

“It’s because I want to help people just get some food so they can eat,” she said.

Fourteen-year-old Xenia Fuamaila is another youth group volunteer. She put some French toast in a to-go box. Xenia said it meant a lot to her, to be able to help. 

“I’m just really happy that people are being able to get meals when they’re able to,” she said. “Seeing that smile on their face.”

In August, the Glory Hall reduced its day services due to what staff say is an unsafe environment on the streets around the shelter.

The city’s winter warming shelter opens in mid October. It offers food in the mornings and evenings. But until then, the city’s unhoused population has limited options for finding a warm meal.

So kids like Katrina and Xenia, along with volunteers from several other churches, stepped in. Before the Glory Hall reduced its services, several churches distributed meals every Tuesday in the Mendenhall Valley. Now, more churches are joining in. They’ve brought their operation downtown, and serve food three times a week. 

Inside the truck, Melanie Venables directed the youth chefs as they made and distributed about 100 meals over the course of the evening. 

“Our youth group does all the cooking and the serving,” Venables said. 

She said community members have really responded to the food distribution, including those who need food, and those who want to help. 

“A lot of churches jumped right in to help, and it’s gotten more and more people every week,” Venables said. “So like, it’s been busy.” 

Harold Lloyd Hassell is one of those people. He said he’s been coming to this food distribution when it’s open, as he navigates living outside. 

“I’ve never been accustomed to being jobless or homeless in Juneau,” he said. 

He said that especially on a cold and wet evening like Friday, a warm meal is more than just food. 

“[It] means a great deal, considering that some of the organizations that you know were around, aren’t around to help, such as the Glory Hall and some other places,” Hassell said. “But it’s good that Juneau pulls together when it does.”

As she handed out more boxes in the pouring rain, Katrina said any kids who want to volunteer, like she is, should try it. 

“Just don’t be scared,” she said. “Just have fun.”

The food truck serves hot meals in the Salvation Army parking lot Mondays at lunchtime, and Wednesdays and Fridays 6 to 7 p.m. until the warming shelter opens on Oct. 15. 

Listen:

The crowd erupted in cheers as Juneau’s high school football team made a tackle on the soggy turf field in Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park on Saturday afternoon. 

The Crimson Bears were playing against last year’s state champions, Anchorage’s Dimond High School. Spectators in rain jackets packed the stands and others stood out in the weather, lining the track with umbrellas.

Cheerleaders got a break from the rain when they donned white cowboy hats between routines. It was a classic Crimson Bears game. But there were some unfamiliar faces. 

A team of five reporters and cameramen from national TV network NBC were chasing the action on the field with big cameras covered in plastic bags. 

The crew flew in to catch a very rainy game. It may end up part of a feature the network plans to air on the day of the most-watched sporting event in the United States – the Super Bowl. 

Ken Brown is a middle school teacher and wrestling coach. He was standing with a few other teachers on the track in the rain. He said the turnout is about the same as it usually is, TV cameras or not.

“It’s just a big community atmosphere,” Brown said.

Brown comes to games because he likes to see his former wrestlers play, and he said it makes sense that NBC would choose Juneau as one of the games they plan to feature. 

“Down here we’re in the middle of a rainforest,” he said. “It’s really wild.”

Longtime NFL sports reporter Peter King stood under a giant inflatable Crimson Bear at one end of the field. He had one eye on the game as he spoke. 

He covered the NFL for four decades. He retired last year, but pitched a story to NBC that found him battling the driving rain in Juneau.

“I suggested the story, ‘Let’s go out and look at five or six high school football teams across the United States, and let’s take the temperature of why high school football matters,’” he said.

King’s team already visited the Winnebago reservation in Nebraska. He said he wanted to go to far-flung places: the team initially planned to go to Hawaii, to a school where the football field has a view of the Pacific Ocean.

“And I said, ‘How great. But it just felt a little bit too pretty,’” King said.

The weather in Juneau is a different story. 

“There are some times when it stops raining, and you say, ‘Wow, it was just raining five minutes ago, and then it stopped raining, and now it’s pouring again,’” he said. “And I say, ‘This is some interesting weather you have here.’”

But he was pleased with it. He said the rainy day only makes the footage more real —and more reflective of what makes Juneau special. 

“This whole thing is awesome, I love it,” King said. “I’m so happy we chose Juneau. And the kids — you know, we’re going to do some interviews with the players, and I was in their locker room before the game. They’re marvelous. They’re absolutely marvelous.”

King said he saw the Crimson Bears’ star player helping his teammates tape up their ankles. 

Juneau’s sense of community and ruggedness is what King’s looking for in the football teams he visits, including a girls flag football game in Alabama. 

Super Bowl LX will take place Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California. As for Saturday’s game, the Crimson Bears narrowly beat Dimond High, 15-14. 

Rain poured down in Juneau on Sunday, but that didn’t stop residents from going to Tracy’s Crab Shack for a night of music from the local band The High Costa Livin’. Under covered tents, attendees lined up for food and were surrounded by a silent auction, a raffle and a bake sale.

Tracy’s hosted one of more than 15 local fundraisers working to help a young Juneau resident go on a clinical trial for a rare genetic disease. Emma Jobsis is the mother of four-year-old Cade Jobsis.

“People that I haven’t even asked, I haven’t even talked to, are texting, calling, wanting to be a part of this,” she said. “And I’m just so grateful because there’s no way we could do this alone.”

She says fundraising efforts started a couple years ago, when Cade was diagnosed with SPG50, a rare disease where a child gradually loses their cognitive and motor function. There is no cure.

“When we got the diagnosis, the doctors told us to take him home, love him. There was nothing they could do,” Jobsis said.

But there is an experimental treatment that she says was developed by the father of a child with the same disease. Its creation had a hefty price tag. Jobsis said she and several other families raised the $3 million to create the treatment. For Jobsis, that was largely done through social media campaigns.

Now, the Juneau family is fundraising again so Cade can use the new treatment. They need to raise $1.15 million for hospital and regulatory fees to do a clinical trial for Cade. Jobsis said fundraising largely falls on families, despite her efforts to raise funds through the government and pharmaceutical companies.

“It’s not lucrative, and they’re never even going to see their money again,” she said. “So the only people that care to get treatments are parents of children that have this childhood disease. And so as parents, we came together — four families — and we said, ‘We have to do this. We have to raise the money, because nobody else is going to. Nobody else cares like we do.’”

The Juneau community has been responding in a big way. Jobsis said as of Sunday evening, they had raised $357,000. She said Cade can begin treatment in November if they have 80% of the funds in escrow by Oct. 20. 

Juneau resident Kelsey Riker was at the event, eating dinner in the crowded tent. She’s the manager at Kindred Post, a local gift shop and post office. Riker said it’s great to see the community act in a huge way.

“While this community support has been such a bright light, I also think this should not be necessary for anyone, especially a little kid born with a thing that we don’t know much about,” Riker said.

But Riker said she wants to continue to be part of the effort to raise money.

“If there are ways to be fighting a very broken system by rallying around our community, then that is something that I want to be a part of,” she said.

Tom Ainsworth made his way into the tent with the festivities. He is a retired weather forecaster and said he’s glad to see everybody supporting the cause. He got emotional when he talked about why he came to support the family.

“Well, we have a grandson about the same age, and I can’t imagine going through what they’re going through,” Ainsworth said.

Jobsis estimated on Monday they raised another $50,000 from the weekend’s fundraisers. They have to raise about $738,000 more to reach their goal. The family will continue raising money for Cade’s treatment with fundraisers in and beyond Juneau.

This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.

Juneau high school students Alivia Gomez and Maddie Bass are playing student debaters in Perseverance Theatre’s new play, “What the Constitution Means to Me.” 

The play reflects playwright Heidi Schreck’s experience as a teenager participating in constitutional debates in 1989, and how it influenced her understanding of the founding document of our government as an adult.

During the play’s run in Juneau, Gomez and Bass step into Schreck’s shoes and draw on their own experience in high school debate. 

Listen:

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Alivia Gomez: I’m Alivia Gomez. I’m a senior at Juneau Douglas High School. I play debater in the performance, “What the Constitution Means to Me.” Aside from that, I’m also the debate captain of Juneau Douglas’s drama, debate and forensics team. I’m very proud to be. 

Maddie Bass: Hi, my name is Maddie Bass. I’m a sophomore at Juneau Douglas High School. I’m Alivia’s understudy for the role of debater, in “What the Constitution Means to Me.” I’ve also been debating for one year. 

Alivia Gomez:  I will say for I think debate, particularly, because a lot of the topics are politically focused, it really gives you a more open minded perspective going into things. Like, you’re kind of forced to hear these resolutions and you have your preliminary ideas about it. 

Like, for example, the topic for nationals last year was, “On balance, the benefits of executive orders outweigh their harms.” 

And of course, everyone kind of has their bias on it, but you’re kind of forced to consider both aspects of it and really consider, ‘Okay, I have to weigh these, these really hard factors.’ 

And I think that’s really helpful, not especially for younger minds, because I really believe that we need more young people politically involved.

Maddie Bass: Our world has drastically changed since Heidi Schreck was a teenager. And so it’s a really interesting way for the audience to see how, even though you know, Heidi was talking about the Constitution — what was it? 30 years ago — and it’s still just as relevant to us today.

I’ve learned the most about the laws of this country and how my own life has been shaped by the Constitution, from these past couple weeks working on this play.

You know, it’s the baseline for all the protections and all the harms for people in this country, which is something so fascinating and so scary at the same time. Yeah, yeah.

Alivia Gomez: Obviously, this script was written a while ago. But I really, truly think that what makes this play so special is that its importance is timeless. It will always be relevant in how we can better shape our democracy, the question of how we can get better as a country, which is really what the place centers around, and how we can fight for better, positive human rights for all of us, is really the theme that it shows. 

Maddie Bass: There are two different versions of the debate. So if you, if you go and watch this play, you’re going to see a coin flip. That coin flip is real. We don’t know which side we’re taking when we go into this performance. So there is that, that little bit of improvisation in there too.

Alivia Gomez: There’s also, yeah, a little room for mystery as to be arguing, which is going to be really cool, because we’re also going to be keeping tally of which way the audience votes, because the audience will be our judges.

Juneau has a problem. A cat problem — indoor, outdoor, stray and feral. And the ones who aren’t spayed or neutered are multiplying at an alarming rate.

There are currently about 100 cats within Juneau Animal Rescue’s system, in foster care and the shelter itself. JAR hits capacity yearly, and it’s fundraising for a new building. But the number of unaltered cats in Juneau is growing faster and faster, and the shelter is struggling to keep up. 

Veterinarian Alicia Harris said it’s hard to know how many cats there are in Juneau. But she says they multiply fast.

“Cats can become reproductively mature as early as four to six months, and their reproductive cycle is every 90 days,” she said. “And the average litter sizes are five to six kittens. So if you do the math … things can multiply very, very quickly and get out of control very fast.”

Two unaltered cats can turn into hundreds in just a handful of years. Harris has worked at JAR for close to a decade. 

“It has absolutely evolved and changed since I started here, and gotten worse,” she said. “Especially with birth defects and things like that, because of inbreeding.” 

She said the litters of kittens that people find and bring in increasingly have health problems.

Andy Nelson with JAR said the majority of kittens are coming from indoor cats whose population got out of control in someone’s home.

“It’s the ones that are indoors that, I think, are maybe more confined to smaller spaces where they’re breeding and repeatedly breeding inside,” he said.

He said he knows there are more in the community reproducing, but it’s impossible to know how many. 

And spaying and neutering can be expensive. JAR has cheaper prices for low-income pet owners, but Nelson says people can call the rescue to see if donations can cover their cats’ surgery.

“I would just say that if people find themselves in the situation or try to avoid the situation, but money becomes an obstacle, to reach out,” he said. “We can always do our best to work with people. 

Nelson said he believes a lot of these cats are the descendants of cats people took in during the pandemic, from litters sold or given away on Craigslist or Facebook. 

Those cats usually aren’t fixed before they are given to their new home, and Juneau had a vet shortage during the pandemic. That may have prevented people from spaying and neutering cats before they started reproducing. 

Nelson said anyone who is overwhelmed by cats in their home or neighborhood should reach out.

JAR Director Rick Driscoll said if anyone wants a new cat, they should consider adopting from the shelter instead of getting them off the internet. 

“When you come to JAR and you adopt a cat, you’re getting a cat that’s been spayed or neutered, that’s got its vaccinations, that’s got a microchip, and there’s a fee associated with that,” he said. “But when people get cats for free, the cost comes later, and the cost is actually more than the adoption fee.”

Nelson said part of that cost is the animals’ health.

“A lot of these come in and they’ve been suffering,” he said. “And so they’re not in good shape.”

But there are community members who are stepping in to help, like Shonda Belknap, who fosters litters of kittens and even pulls litters out from under porches. In a room in her house dedicated to foster kittens, she held up a pale, very furry cat with crossed eyes. 

“His name is Finnegan B Waddles,” she said. “He came to me very, very ill. We discovered through vet appointments that he has congenital hypothyroidism, which is very rare, but he is actually almost ready for fostering, I mean, for adoption” 

Finnegan is inbred. He’s only a few weeks old, but he will require daily medication for the rest of his life. Belknap said fostering brings her a lot of joy. 

“You cannot be stressed in a room with foster kittens,” she said. “They won’t let you. They look at you like you’re the only thing that exists for them. So they need you to be present in that moment.”

She said when she sees posts on social media of Juneau families whose cats are unaltered and reproducing, she offers help.  

“I have reached out several times to people I’ve seen online,” she said. “Like, ‘oh my gosh, that’s 12 cats,’ and I’m like, ‘let’s get mom fixed. Let’s focus on mom.’”

Belknap takes in litters that are surrendered or found, takes care of them until they’re able to get spayed or neutered and vaccinated, and often pays for those procedures herself before finding them homes in the community. 

She said she wants to see the population under control, so existing cats can get the love and care they need. And so those cats can love and care for the people who take them in. 

This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.

Juneau’s cat population has been growing out of control for the last few years. Juneau Animal Rescue relies on fosters to help with litters of kittens that people find around town, under buildings and porches.

Tara Thornton is one of JAR’s fosters — she regularly has one or two litters of kittens with or without a nursing mom. Thornton has a passion for caring for these cats, but she says, sometimes it’s a bit hard to give them back.

Listen:

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Tara Thornton: My goal is to never cry at JAR. It’s okay to cry once you get in the car after you give them back. That’s my rule for myself. No crying in JAR, no crying before you drop them off. You always give them forehead kisses and snuggles before you drop them off. 

And realize like you’re doing an amazing service for their lives and you’re contributing to their success, and then finding loving homes and letting yourself then cry it out that evening and maybe get some pizza and ice cream, you know?

I’m Tara Thornton. I foster kittens for Juneau Animal Rescue, and it’s an amazing thing to contribute to the community, and also just so fun to interact with kittens and watch them grow and develop into cats. 

My history of fostering kittens – my mom went to school for zoology, and all I can remember is she always had rescues, like I grew up with rescues in the house. She was always taking in injured animals, specifically cats. Like, she’s definitely a cat lover. So I have lots of memories of being in a Walmart parking lot in the bushes, trying to capture kittens as a little kid. 

Something that’s so important to me is contributing to the community and protecting the cats, as many as I can without letting it overtake my life. Like this is the try to focus on. Like this is the part I can contribute to, is the fostering. I can’t fix all the problems that go [on] out there and spay, neuter everyone’s cats for them, but I can focus on keeping the babies alive and getting them to the point where they can be adopted by the public.

Juneau Animal Rescue is amazing to partner with. I love fostering for them. I feel so supported. I can text or call with any questions. They provide food and litter, wet food, dry food and litter, and just – they’re [an] amazing group of people that are just so compassionate anytime I go in there for checkups and they’re excited to see the babies as they get older and less spicy. And so it really feels like it’s a good team. 

If anyone has been thinking about adopting or fostering, now is the time to act on that, because jar has so many cats within their care, and all their regular cat fosters have multiple litters that they’re taking care of right now. So there’s only so many of us, so we really do need help. For anybody who’s even been curious and thinking about it, to volunteer time, resources, money, whatever you can do. Your home, if you can.

You can let JAR know your level of experience and comfortability and that you’re new, and get into it that way, and maybe take a senior cat – a little bit lower responsibility, or, like less time responsibility, but still really needed. Because I can’t take on three adult cats that need medication every day along with my two litters, and I’m sure the other kitten fosters are in the same boat. 

So we would really need a house that could take one cat that needs medication every day, or one house that could take a bonded senior pair of cats until they could be adopted. So any help is needed, and very much so appreciated.