By Julie Jonas
Special to the Turnagain Times
From all of us at Four Valleys Community School Inc., we hope you had a very joyous holiday break!
Winter means getting out and enjoying the snow!! Okay – shoveling can be fun sometimes. FVCS program highlights include a skate skiing class for adults, as well as our Four Valleys Nordic Ski Club for 6-12 year olds. Coordinator Heather Durtschi and a team of coaches rally the kids to explore our back yard on skinny skis. Thanks to Mark Jonas and his team of local volunteer trail groomers who mark a path for us to follow “up valley” (along with the occasional obstacle course that helps build cross country skills).
For downhill skiers and boarders, FVCSI co-sponsors the Discover/Explorer/Rec-reational program with Alyeska Resort. We also co-sponsor the Girdwood School Ski Program, where all the schoolchildren downhill ski on six Thursday afternoons. 
For those of you less inclined to spend hours outside, check out Kung Fu for children and adults, Burly Bodies, Basketball, Better Body Stretching or Soccer. The school gym is used Monday through Friday for active, indoor pursuits; check out the FVCS Program Guide for a complete listing of classes.
Special interests? Japan-ese Language? Photography? Scrapbooking? Astronomy? There could be something for you. You may register for classes at anytime, provided there is space available. Stop by the FVCS office or call 742-5317 for more information. Back again by popular demand this quarter are Ed2Go online classes. See www.ed2go.com/fvcsi for a comprehensive list of online, instructor facilitated classes. Learn Spanish or Excel or Grant writing and more from your home or office computer, any time day or night.
FUN FEBRUARY EVENTS:
Stumpy’s Snowball Biatha-lon is on Monday, Feb. 19. This free event is for all aged folk who can cross country ski and throw snowballs. Bring your gear to Moose Meadows, register before your age group, then ski a loop to three targets. Get three throws to hit the target or ski a short penalty loop. Prizes, local competition and costumes get us out there laughing and skiing!
Beach Blanket BINGO is Saturday, Feb. 10 and is being held this year at the Meadows Community Center. This FVCS annual fundraiser begins at 7 p.m. Get your tickets from any FVCS board member or at the FVCS office located in the Girdwood School ($20 in advance or $25 at the door). Dessert is included this year. You can reserve a table for your group of friends call the FVCS office at 742-5317. Don’t forget your aloha shirts, muumuus, sarongs, tank tops, shorts, sandals and shades! The costumes and table decorations your Girdwood neighbors come up with make this night an anticipated highlight in the middle of the dark winter! You ought to come just to see our annual Bingo coordinator, Kathy Feathergill Calvin in action!
Community Contra Dance , Feb. 23, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. in the Girdwood School Gym. Bring a friend or find one there. Kick up your heels to live, foot stomping music, with a caller who gives you all the instructions. Beginning and experienced dancers welcome. Thanks to Cindy Nielsen for organizing these quarterly events and bringing this age old form of dancing fun to our community.
If you are new to the Four Valleys area, please stop by the FVCS office located in the Girdwood School on Hightower Road, between the hours of 2:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., Monday through Thurs-day (until 6 p.m. on Fridays) and we would be happy to help you with any questions you may have about the events and activities offered by FVCS. FVCS staff members have “been around the block” and will probably be able to answer many questions you may have about the community in general as well.
Our door is open!
 |
Behr leads a lesson in tying knots while making holiday decorations. Photo courtesy of Leslie Adams, Little Bears |
By Molly Hickox
Special to the Turnagain Times
It’s been a busy winter so far at Little Bears and the New Year is bringing some new ideas to your community childcare center. As you may know, the municipal building that houses Little Bears will not be around forever. In the master plan for the New Townsite area, the road is realigned and goes through the area where our current building sits. While it may be years until the road is actually moved, it may happen sooner than we think, and Little Bears would like to be ready to move before that happens. The board is starting to explore our options and would love input from the community on what you would like to see in your community childcare center.
We would like to form a committee consisting of board members, parents, and any other interested community members who would like to have a say in what Little Bears might look like in the future. This committee would be involved in working with the municipality and local groups to help find a new home for our center and helping decide what that center might offer. They would also brainstorm ideas and advise the board on grants and other funding sources that might help to construct a new facility. This will be an exciting opportunity to work on a project that will serve the children of Girdwood for many years in the future. If you are interested in helping us through this process, or if you just want some more information, please call Little Bears at 783-2116 and speak with Leslie Adams, our director.
This project comes at a good time for our center, since we are currently at capacity for our facility. There continues to be a steady demand for childcare in Girdwood, and we don’t anticipate that demand to decrease anytime soon. There are days when we have to turn people away because we are so full serving our regular families. With a new facility we could really expand and improve the programs that we already offer. Right now, we are licensed to provide care for children ages six months through 10 years, but we know that there is a demand for infant care in our community. If we had a bigger facility, it could include a specialized infant room and we could care for younger babies whose parents needed a local option for childcare. We could also expand our preschool program to serve kids ages three to five who are looking for an opportunity to socialize with other children and also to learn basic skills before heading to kindergarten. We currently offer this program, but cannot always accommodate the number of children that would like to attend. It’s a good sign when our programs are full, but since we are a community non-profit, our mission is to serve the needs of the community. We would love to be able to accommodate all of the local families that need childcare, as well as families that are visitors to our valley. A new facility would allow us to do that.
If you are interested in bringing your child to Little Bears, please give us a call to find out more about the programs that we offer. If your child has not attended before and you are looking for full time care, please contact us at least one month in advance to discuss your needs and to see if we have the space to accommodate your child. We also encourage parents to visit the center with their child before they actually need childcare so that both the parents and the child can become familiar with the center and our staff. If you are just looking for drop in care or would like to bring your child for socialization and interaction with other local children, please contact us for available openings during the week. All children who attend Little Bears need to have a current physical and other forms on file, so make sure you contact us in advance of when you actually need care. We look forward to continuing to serve the families of Girdwood.
 |
The author shows his “air ski” form. Photo courtesy John Gaedeke |
By Philip Peterson II
Special to the Turnagain Times
First off, I want to give a shout out followed by thunderous applause to Matt Parisian and the brave Alyeska snow making crew. These daring souls worked outside in the bitter cold, getting showered by freezing water for hours on end. They slaved away every single day of November including Thanksgiving, and were hard at it for the month of December as well. My hats off to you folks. If I had any skills at all, I’d carve an ice sculpture of each one of you and put them on display at the top of the mountain.
Well we are at that magical time of year again, watching the weather alternate between rain and snow. The top of the mountain is open, and the patrol is working hard to open up more terrain. We have already had some excellent days in the backcountry, and more are no doubt on the way. Meanwhile, I have been going to too many holiday parties and feasting like the world is soon to end. Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day is a time when a lot of us over indulged and grew larger. This can have a detrimental effect on our ability to skin or hike up our favorite mountains over at Turnagain Pass. I love to eat, and I love to go backcountry skiing, but in the past I have had a hard time reconciling these two passions…until now.
I have made a discovery that could reshape America. Our bodies store fat so that we have an energy bank. Our bodies use energy to create muscle. Therefore, this fat is actually potential muscle. Housed in the ample sub-cutaneous layers of my belly is stored energy, and the raw building blocks of muscle. Whenever I go to work out, I am tapping into this potential muscle reservoir. My hefty midriff is actually nature’s divine warehouse!
If I am correct in this new discovery, it would mean that the more you have eaten this holiday season the greater your potential will become. With a larger energy store comes greater endurance, and a more challenging workout. Hauling those extra pounds up Sunburst will make you build muscle faster, while making you more hungry. The scientific community would refer to this as a positive feedback loop.
Discussing this new fitness development with other skiers and riders has brought added bonuses. It was pointed out that your potential muscle warehouse doubles as a “gravity muscle” on the way down. The more potential you have, the more gravity helps you down the mountain (kinetic energy = ? mass X velocity squared). Potential muscle reserves also have an insulating effect against the harsh winter elements. Fewer layers are necessary with a grander reserve.
As you can see, this past holiday season might have been a new beginning for many of us. If you have had one of those days where you were the last person to the top, or you found yourself shivering on the side of the mountain wishing for a warmer jacket, it is time for a change. Enjoy those delicious leftovers and increase your potential. If you catch yourself waffling between whether or not to take a third helping, do it. Tuck into a nice leg of Turkey and envisions tomorrow’s turns.
To bring it all home, I’ll leave you with the visionary words of Girdwood resident, Mark Yezbick, “Make it taste good. Make a lot of it. And when you dine, keep potential muscle in mind!”
 |
Max Photo courtesy Food Lady |
This is the first of a series of interviews with Turnagain Arm dogs. It was written by Buster, a local Girdwood dog, who is often out and about enjoying the company of others of his species.
If you’ve ever taken a walk out the Airstrip road, you’ve met Max. He lives at the corner of Mt. Hood and Lake Tahoe Road, and takes his job as Guardian of the Yard very seriously. There’s plenty of energetic barking and bristling when one of us tries to water a bush or fertilize the grass in his yard.
I met Max last summer when he lured me into his yard to play Chase. We raced madly in circles, through the ditch and around the garage, until we both had to lie down and pant for a while. We started talking.
Max is an Alabama Corn Dog, conceived in a trailer court outside Huntsville. His mother was kidnapped and driven in a tourist’s camper to Anchorage, where she gave birth to a litter of eight. Max says he was the first born, the smartest, and the biggest. He weighs about 20 pounds now, and has the skinniest little legs I’ve ever seen on a grown dog. But the boy is sturdy. He’s not very tall: says he has to stand on his hind legs to see over the berm Redmond’s plow pushes up after the driveway gets plowed.
Max moved to Girdwood the winter of 1999. The Food Lady and Harriet the Cat live with him. He leads an active life as guard dog, companion to The Food Lady, and Cleaner of the Kitchen Floor. He volunteered as a therapy dog for a while, and rides shotgun in the Food Lady’s white VW van.
I’ve seen him sitting in the front seat of that van by the Post Office, wearing his trademark bandanna or cruising in that same vehicle down the Seward Highway, watching for road kill. He says one of the biggest thrills of his life occurred when the Food Lady actually stopped and picked up a duck he’d spotted stretched out in the middle of the road by the Potter Marsh weigh station. Turned out it was alive, and though disappointed, Max licked it all the way to the Bird Treatment Center (It only struggled a little).
Max’s favorite toys are a rubber spider, and a fur mousie he stole from Harriet the Cat. He has declared war on all squirrels in our area.
Max, a personable fellow, will bark at you and your Person when you come to his door, then welcome you enthusiastically with tail wags and French kisses. I recommend his yard for a lively game of Chase anytime you’re in the neighborhood. During the summer there’s soft grass to race around, and the Food Lady will even bring you a drink of fresh cold water.
Buster will be spending the remaining winter months in Acapulco with his Chihuahua friend Maria. Max the Dog has agreed to be guest columnist in future issues of the Turnagain Times.