Community

The Rasmuson Foundation announced more than $1 million in funding for Juneau’s AWARE shelter and The Glory Hole.

The grants are part of $9.6 million to be awarded this year to Alaska nonprofits.  The foundation announced the funding yesterday at its biannual meeting.

The Aiding Women In Abuse and Rape Emergencies (AWARE) was awarded $1 million to build an extended stay shelter for women and children.

“It means so much to me that the Rasmuson Foundation recognizes the critical need of safety and stability in the lives of women leaving the emergency shelter,” AWARE Executive Director Saralyn Tabachnick said.

Tabachnick estimates approximately 20 women and children stay at the emergency shelter each day with sometimes up to 37 staying the night.

The transitional housing is going to be made up of six units – 4 two-bedroom units and two efficiencies. She expects stays of 3-18 months.

“Having this housing can make a tremendous impact in the lives of people wanting to live free of violence,” she said.

The Glory Hole, which provides food and shelter for the homeless, was awarded $120,000 for weatherization and energy efficiency improvements to its facilities.

Full list of projects funded
Juneau:

• AWARE: $1 million to construct an extended stay shelter for women and children.
• The Glory Hole: $120,000 to make weatherization and energy efficiency improvements to its facility which provides food and shelter to homeless individuals.

Anchorage:

• Access Alaska: $500,000 grant and a $500,000 Program Related Investment loan to purchase and renovate its operations building in Anchorage.
• Alaska Community Foundation: $350,000 for a fund established by the Alaska Railroad to restore historic steam engine #557.
• Alaska Pacific University: $100,000 for activities to build student enrollment and increase annual giving.
• Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center: a grant for up to $650,000 to install updated breast imaging equipment at the new health clinic.
• Anchorage Park Foundation: $100,000 for installation of two art panels as a component of the renovation of the Anchorage Veterans’ Memorial.
• Rural Alaska Community Action Program: $450,000 to purchase and renovate a child development facility in Anchorage for low income families.
• United Way of Anchorage: $1,000,000 to support the “90 percent by 2020” program to increase high school graduation rates in Anchorage.
• Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska: $200,000 to renovate a facility to house the Gan Yeladim Early Learning Center.

Kodiak:

• Brother Francis Shelter Kodiak: $500,000 to expand and renovate its homeless shelter.
• City of Kodiak: $500,000 to construct a new public library
• Kodiak Area Native Association: $100,000 to modernize the dental clinic in its Alutiiq Health Center with new dental chairs and equipment.

Kenai Peninsula:

• City of Soldotna: $495,000 grant to purchase fixtures, furniture and equipment for the expansion of the Joyce K. Carver Memorial Public Library.

Mat-Su:

• Southcentral Foundation: $1,258,900 to furnish and equip a 21-chair dental clinic in the new Valley Native Primary Care Center in Wasilla.

Statewide:

• Alaska Immigration Justice Project: $500,000 to expand the programs and services offered by its Language Interpreter Center.
• RurAL CAP: $250,000 to make improvements to Head Start facilities in several rural communities.
• $1 million was allocated for a one-time distribution of funds through the statewide Emergency Food and Shelter Network administered through United Way of Anchorage.

 

 

 

 

 

Dozens of Juneau teenagers held a quiet memorial at Auke Lake late Monday afternoon for 16-year-old Savannah Cayce who died earlier in the day of her injuries from a collision between an inner tube and a Jet Ski.

The teens were gathered on the floating dock at the Auke Lake boat launch. It was silent except for soft crying, whispering and the sound of the rain on the trees.

Dozens of brightly-colored carnations and roses floated in the water around the dock, while people gathered in groups, holding each other or clutching long-stemmed flowers.

Cayce was one of two teenage girls being towed in an inner tube on Auke Lake Saturday. Lt. David Campbell says there were few witnesses to the accident, which occurred in the middle of the lake. He says the two Jet Ski drivers and the other teen riding the inner tube helped officers piece together the cause.

“We conducted our investigation and we learned that the inner tube was being towed by a Jet Ski and the inner tube swung out and hit another Jet Ski,” Campbell said. “So it was the inner tube hitting the Jet Ski not a Jet Ski running over an inner tube.”

Campbell says a boater in the area brought the girls back to shore.

Both girls were taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital. One girl was treated for a bump on her head and released, and the other was medevac’d to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with a severe head injury.

Harborview officials say she was declared brain dead at 8:45 a.m. Monday.

Campbell says the Jet Ski towing the inner tube was being driven by a 20-year-old Juneau man. The driver of the other Jet Ski was a 19-year-old Juneau male. Police are not releasing any names at this time. He says alcohol was not a factor in the accident.

According to Campbell, the department is conducting a full investigation, which is required by law when a death is unattended.

The discovery of a grave halted construction work outside a school in Douglas. Workers digging in front of the Gastineau Community School on Thursday found the marked grave of Sam Goldstein, a Chilkat man from Klukwan who died in 1927.

Rorie Watt of the CBJ Engineering Department says crews relocated several old burial sites during construction in the 1960s and apparently missed Goldstein’s grave.

The workers on Thursday were digging footings for a concrete staircase when they came upon the headstone and grave below ground.

Watt says that it’s unlikely that construction crews will find more graves. He says contractors have excavated much of the rest of the site, but they will dig carefully as they continue the renovation.

Southeast Catholics this weekend will celebrate the 75th birthday of the late Bishop Michael Kenny, the popular priest who worked tirelessly for human rights and world peace.

The third bishop of the Diocese of Juneau, which covers Southeast Alaska, Kenny died of an aneurysm in 1995 at the age of 57, while touring ancient Christian ruins in Jordan.

Kenny served the diocese for 16 years, from 1979 to 1995. He was admired by people of all faiths.

Bishop Edward Burns says a community reception and silent auction is Saturday evening at St. Ann’s Parish Hall. On Sunday afternoon, there’s a celebration mass and picnic potluck at the Shrine of St. Therese. Bishop Kenny is buried at the Shrine.

Burns says he has been hearing stories about Kenny for years, but never knew him.

“When I introduce myself as the Bishop of the Diocese of Juneau, so many people say to me, ‘Oh, I knew Bishop Kenny,’ and I always rejoice in hearing the stories they have to offer about him and the great gift of lift that he possessed,” Burns says. “Knowing that aspect of him and being honored to be one of his successors, I definitely wanted to do something like this as we commemorate his 75th birthday.”

Kenny protested the nuclear arms race and joined a human-rights delegation to Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. In 1991, he helped organize a reconciliation service to apologize for past wrongs by the Christian church against Alaska Natives.

The Juneau Assembly in 2009 named the park at Third and Seward Streets the Bishop Michael H. Kenny Memorial Peace Park. The idea was brought to the city by Juneau Veterans for Peace.

Kenny was known as a man of good humor, a strong supporter of the arts who seldom missed a musical or theatrical performance in Juneau, and a gourmet cook. Local arts organizations often auctioned off dinners with the Bishop for fundraisers.

Bishop Burns says it’s “important to remember those who help shape a community.”

Bishop Kenny 75th Memorial Celebration
Reception & silent auction, Saturday, 6 – 9 p.m., St. Ann’s Parish Hall
Liturgy and potluck picnic, Sunday, 1:30 p.m., Shrine of St. Therese

Bright yellow NO PARKING signs are popping up on downtown Juneau streets – it’s street sweeping time.

The annual spring cleanup started June 5th and will continue until the dregs of winter are swept away.

The Juneau Streets Department is asking people to move their vehicle on the day and time posted on the signs. Street officials say an area will not be cleaned if there are too many vehicles left on the street.

The big street sweeping machines are outfitted with a pickup head to suck up debris and dump it into a hopper. A round brush, called a gutter broom, swirls around curbs, gutters and other obstacles.

Link to the CBJ street sweeping schedule: http://www.juneau.org/streets/springcleanup.php

Juneau residents remembered those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country during multiple Memorial Day observances on Monday, May 28.

The Auke Bay American Legion Post 25 hosted the Mendenhall Valley Memorial Day observance at Alaska Memorial Park Cemetery.

Coast Guard Commander David Godfrey said 425 American service men and women have died since Memorial Day 2011.

“So it is right that we are hear to remember those 425 who died since last year, those 6,400 who have died since 911, and those thousands who have died in previous years and previous wars. And memorialize those 425 and hopefully there will be fewer each year,” Godfrey told the crowd of veterans, family and friends gathered at the cemetery.

At the same time, services were also underway at Evergreen Cemetery downtown, organized by Veterans of Foreign Wars Taku Post 5559.

Coast Guard Commander Dennis Evans remembered the burial of Petty Officer Nathan Bruckenthal at Arlington National Cemetery in May of 2004. Bruckenthal was the first Coast Guard combat casualty of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the branch’s first since Vietnam.

“Today we all reflect on the men and women we have known like Nate Bruckenthal,” Coast Guard Commander Dennis Evans told the crowd.

“It’s become popular saying Memorial day is not about a day off from work or beaches or car races or picnics or blockbuster movies or how we start our summers. I’m not sure I entirely agree with that sentiment. Memorial Day is, at least in part, about all of those things. But it’s about those things because of the sacrifices of our heroes. They fought and died so we could continue to enjoy all that. The freedoms we so often take for granted are not free and that is what we must remember,” Evans said.

The downtown observance also included visiting members of the Sperl family at the grave of Army Corporal Donald Walter Sperl, who was killed in Vietnam in May 1968. The joint University of Alaska Southeast Recreation and Alaska Army National Guard Readiness Center is named for Sperl and Charles Gamble Jr., also killed in Vietnam.

Observances also were held at the Southeast Alaska Native Veterans Memorial Park, adjacent to the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall.

Vietnam veteran Bill Thomas, now a state representative from Haines, attended the ceremony.

“Every time that I see someone that I know that was in Vietnam, I remember Vietnam. I remember things I don’t like to remember, my body remembers. I want to forget, but it doesn’t happen that way,” Thomas said. “It’s a fear of dreaming about being back in Vietnam, being under combat, being under fire.”

Thomas said it’s only been eight years since he had one of those dreams.

Wreaths were placed by various veterans groups at all three observances yesterday.