Girdwood School students use the scientific process

To the Editor:

Girdwood School held its biennial Science Fair on Tuesday, March 6, in the Girdwood School Gym. Many parents and community members attended the Open House during the evening to view the students’ excellent projects. Students in grades K-8 spent long hours during January, February, and March forming hypotheses, gathering information and materials, analyzing data, and creating a display to share with evaluators and the community.

Many creative and original science projects were on display, ranging from “Which insulation keeps your house the warmest?” by sixth grade student, Davan Doran, to “How does snow affect the roof and the building?” by second grade student, Bergen Knutson, and “Which boot loses heat faster?” by eighth grade student, Kylie Sandberg. Students, parents, judges, and community members voted Chase Chythlook’s project, “Do goldfish glow in the dark?” as the favorite project for this year’s science fair.

Girdwood School would like to thank the following Girdwood community members for volunteering their time to evaluate the students’ projects: Sherry Dugan, Judy Onslow, Kathleen Keusenkothan, Kate Mohatt, Frans Weits, Diana Livingston, Mark Chilcote, and Mike Durtschi. These evaluators interviewed each of the science fair participants and provided useful comments on their work.

The interviews offered students an opportunity to reflect on their experiments and practice their speaking skills with citizens of the community. We would also like to thank Michael and Stefanie Flynn for their generous donation of food from the Bake Shop that our evaluators enjoyed during lunch. We would also like to send out a thank you to the Girdwood PTA for donating money to purchase ribbons, certificates, prizes, and supplies.

Kari Schmideke
Molly Hickox
Girdwood School

Girdwood Clinic’s Nurse Practitioner not deserving of negative ad campaign by Turnagain Arm Health Center

To the Editor:

Please let me comment on the full page letter by the TAHC Board of Directors. Thank you for clarifying the character of whom you refer to as Dorius. I hadn’t realized that the bylaws had been altered, must have missed that Girdwood town meeting. Oh, you changed them without public comment. That’s a honest way of doing things. Now for Dorius, Wow what a negative ad campaign.

The Kerry Advanced Nurse Practitioner that I know is one of the most honest, hardworking people in medicine. I don’t see her getting rich at Girdwood’s expense, just the opposite with competently treating all that need care. And this has been for a long time, I believe over seven years. How would I know this, could be that I’m a physician and also a patient of Kerry Dorius.

If only Ted was alive, he must be rolling in his grave.    

Gary Wilson
Girdwood

Thankful for Girdwood Clinic services

To the Editor:

We wanted to take the time to commend the folks at the Girdwood Clinic. Last Wednesday, March 14, my 11-year-old son, after an incredible day of skiing the deepest powder of his young life, suffered a severe cut below his knee on his last run of the day while attempting to grind a rail at the terrain park at Alyeska.

Instead of having to go up to Anchorage and sit in an emergency room for who knows how many hours, we were able to zip over to the Girdwood Clinic where, ironically, they were getting ready to have a community meeting to discuss whether or not a clinic was really needed in town.

It was quickly determined that my son’s injury could wait until the morning to be stitched up, although Nurse Practitioner Kerry Dorius did tell us we could take him to Anchorage if we did not want to wait. We were immediately impressed with Kerry’s professionalism, so we elected to wait until the morning, when we again returned to the clinic. Kerry did a great job of putting my son at ease while she stitched him up for over an hour. Furthermore, she gave us detailed, written instructions on how to care for the injury, along with her phone number if we had any questions. We’ve already had a few and Kerry was always available to answer them.

We are all very grateful for the services provided by the Girdwood Clinic. We feel that the residents in Girdwood are very fortunate to have such great medical facilities, and we know that if we lived in Girdwood, we would be strong supporters of having a clinic there! Thanks again, Kerry, Jill and the rest of the folks at the clinic who ever you are: you rock!

Barbara Sivin, Ron and Colin Harper
Fairbanks

Girdwood Lions Club coming up on its 20th Anniversary

To the Editor:

The Girdwood Lions Club will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its charter this June. We thank the Girdwood community for supporting us in our efforts to make some positive contributions to our town during those years.

To continue our good works, we need new energy, so if you might be interested in helping with some of our projects, please join us at the Meadows Thursday, April 19, 6-8 p.m. for a spaghetti dinner (courtesy of the Lions). The end of school BBQ, Alyeska Highway cleanup and Humpy Fest are coming soon!

Please RSVP to 783-2717 so we have enough food. Thank you.

Kathy Trautner
President Girdwood Turnagain Arm Lions Club

Girdwood Clinic, Inc. thanks local supporters

To the Editor:

A BIG thank you to all who came to the Girdwood Health Clinic community presentation on March 14. Thank you also for the many letters of support sent to the Senate Finance Committee encouraging them to approve of our one-time appropriation request for clinic expansion. This would be a big step towards qualifying for future funding for improved services in the near future.

Board of Directors
Girdwood Health Clinic, Inc.