By Julie JonasSpecial to the Turnagain Times
By Julie Jonas
Special to the Turnagain Times
Gratitude, that was the word of the day on June 3 when many community members gathered to celebrate the contributions of dedicated volunteers who help to make this community what it is…a great place to live! Thanks to the Toohey family at Crow Creek Mine for allowing Four Valleys Community School, Inc. (FVCS) to host the Annual Volunteer Barbecue. FVCS coordinates the event, but all local organizations are invited to attend and participate in recognizing volunteers. Awards presented were: Little Bears Outstanding Contribution: Molly Hickox, Special Recognition also to: Shannon Keegan and Kerrie Dowd, Girdwood Board of Supervisors: Ron Burson, Four Valleys Community School Volunteer of the Year: Heather Durtschi, Four Valleys Community School Special Recognition: Gloria Blackstone, Girdwood Fire Department Firefighter of the Year: Jim Ashley, Girdwood Fire Department EMS of the Year: Becky Schellinger, Girdwood School PTA Volunteer of the Year: Kris Malecha, Girdwood School Special Recognition: Gabrielle Markel, and Overall Community Service Award for 2006-7: Rebecca Reichlin and Martha Massey. Nominees also included Kris Malecha, Betty Charnon and Nick Danger.
These awards are presented to two individuals who can be nominated by anyone in the community and are selected on the basis of overall service to the community and contributing to the quality of life in the local community. They do not need to have served on any local nonprofit board or belong to any group. Selection is made by a vote of former award recipients.
Rebecca Reichlin has been working on community projects relentlessly for at least twenty years. When your work/livelihood is community service oriented, people may not realize how much you do to get the job done, above and beyond your regular work schedule. Rebecca has done just that; she has put in countless hours both up front and behind the scenes for FVCS, (currently as Board Chair), Girdwood PTA (as President), and Girdwood Center for the Visual Arts – when she was NOT on the clock.
Martha Massey has lived here for many years, helping and volunteering in numerous ways. Her work at the school has helped everyone in this town and every organization. You can not put on an event without her help and knowledge of the school facility and procedures. Martha has come to the aid of countless children, staff and faculty in and outside of her job at the school. Martha is also active in her church, and has been a member of the Turnagain Arm Health Clinic board.
Special recognition from the Four Valleys Community School/Four Valleys Soccer Club goes to Girdwood 2020 for a generous $1000.00 contribution towards the purchase of outdoor soccer goals, being used on the Arlberg Field this summer, where approximately 95 youth are participating in the Four Valleys Soccer program.
Congratulations and thank you to all who make the quality of life in the Four Valleys area a wonderful thing!
This week Max the Dog interviews his friend Sadie—a friend since puppyhood.
Sadie resides with Matt Shields and Rhonda Bedard in Girdwood.
Some dogs just have it made. Sadie, a black lab that lives up the street, is one of them. She can pursue most of her life passions without even leaving home. Such passions as waging war on porcupines, squirrel watching, scuba diving for rocks and sleeping in late on a soft bed.
Sadie and I have different attitudes about the porcupines in our neighborhood. Frankly, I don’t trust them. They’re not friendly at all, and bristle when approached. I’ve never met one yet that wagged its tail and wanted to play, so I just ignore them.
Not Sadie. A battle scarred warrior, she’s had ten major encounters, and hates the critters. During her first experience, she rudely received a quill in the nose in exchange for an inquisitive sniff. That started her vendetta. Each time she encounters a porcupine, her ferociousness escalates, and the number of quills the vet must extract increases. As does his bill. Sadie’s people, Matt and Rhonda, call her their Million Dollar Dog.
She is now determined to eradicate every porcupine she meets. From what I’ve heard from the dogs hanging out at the Post Office, she has successfully recruited others to join her in the Great Porcupine War (no doubt several of you winced in remembrance when you saw the quilled Sadie photo). Good luck in your campaign, Sadie: I choose to remain a conscientious objector.
While I was enjoying the sun in Sadie’s back yard this week, she introduced me to another of her obsessions, Squirrel Watching. Sadie likes to sit and just stare at the furry little things for an hour or two. “If you stay absolutely still, sometimes they’ll even drop pinecones on you,” Sadie whispered, staring with great concentration, not twitching a hair. “It’s actually happened to me.” Being a squirrel chaser myself, I found it difficult to relate, but politely controlled my desire to leap into the air barking energetically.
Sadie also collects rocks fanatically. She retrieves special paw picked rocks by thrusting her head under water in the stream that tumbles through her backyard on its way to Glacier Creek. She drags meat loaf sized stones out of the stream, arranging them artfully on the bank. She then barks for someone to put them back. If no one will oblige, she’ll nose one into the water herself, and scuba dive all over again. While interviewing her for this article, I personally witnessed her add five new mini boulders to her collection.
This lovely black canine with the interesting hobbies is at times called Softy Locks, Snarful, Rocket Dog, or Wiggle Wags. Together with her companions Matt and Rhonda, She enjoys walks, long hikes, and car trips to other destinations besides the vet. Rhonda, my kind of person, has always believed that dogs deserve and need to be loved twenty-four hours a day. Matt is a convert to this philosophy, and Sadie is the contented recipient who loves to sleep late in the morning, curled up like a donut on the bed. Matt has written a ballad, “Black Husky Lady”, in her honor.
Next time the Food Lady and I visit, I hope he plays his guitar and sings it for us. I’m pretty good at harmonizing. This fall, all three of them will leave Alaska. Matt to continue his writing career, and Rhonda to work for a Traveling Nurse Company. I hope wherever they find themselves in the Lower 48, they will live by a boulder filled stream, with squirrels in the trees, and a soft bed in the house. Sadie deserves it.
By Chuck Hinson
Special to the Turnagain Times
People are in awe of Barbara Kingsolver. Over the last twenty years she has become one of the most widely read and respected of modern authors. Known primarily for her imaginative fiction pieces, set in such diverse locations as Africa, Arizona and Appalachia, Barbara Kingsolver has become as strong a heroine in real life as one of her spirited characters. Her essays High Tide in Tuscon and Small Wonder have helped identify issues she cares about, but her latest non-fiction work now out in hardback, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life defines her.
Early in June, a visitor to Girdwood Books, who happened to be from Barbara Kingsolver’s hometown Tucson, told me how proud he and his wife were of their famous citizen. Like so many others I encounter, who often speak with a kind of reverence for the author, he and his wife had read and loved all of her now legendary books (several of which, including The Bean Trees, Poisonwood Bible and High Tide in Tucson, have made their way to mandatory high school reading lists across the country). He paused for effect and then he continued to say, “…but she certainly has her opinions.”
In her latest book, which showcases essays by her husband Steven L. Hopp and recipes by her daughter Camille, Kingsolver doesn’t hold back. “Will our single-family decision to step off the non-sustainable food grid give a big, black eye to that petroleum-hungry behemoth? Keep reading, but don’t hold your breath.”
In an effort to reconnect with original sources of food and water, Kingsolver and her family make a move from the Arizona desert in order to chronicle an ambitious year of living locally, almost entirely off their land in Southern Appalachia. Easier said than done, I would imagine. But for someone of Kingsolver’s investigative talents, the journey is an enriching one, and a most fun and informative experience for the reader.
Beginning with March, a tough month for anything growing, including her precious asparagus, Kingsolver’s book creates a full year of eating and growing that is centered around an imaginary plant called a vegetannual, one single plant that represents/embodies all the fruits/vegetables grown over the course of a typical year. She exposes the seed industry controlled by chemical companies, but heralds the pleasures of real seeds provided by an underground network of new gardeners. She marvels over heirloom vegetables and real flavor, while railing against corn and soy production favored by the government. These two products, she says, “standardized raw material for a new extractive industry,” are what high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils are made from.
Through April and May, lettuce and berries lead the way, as her family’s garden grows and prospers. Not gluttons for punishment, each family member chooses one thing they can’t live without, like coffee or chocolate or cinnamon, but for the most part, they hold up to the challenge, eating and drinking only what they grow or what their neighbors produce and offer locally or through farmer’s markets.
There’s a great chapter for mid-June titled “Growing Trust,” which, after my own heart, describes the variety of a New Englander’s mouthwatering greenhouse tomatoes. “If there were an Angel Choir of tomatoes, these would be singing.” I can relate.
As the youngest daughter Lily lovingly raises chicks, she also investigates the egg selling business and then has to face the issue of eating the adult chickens. Sister Camille then offers a recipe in a section called “Eating my Sister’s Chickens.” Later they even make cheese! (But stay away from ultra-pasteurized milk.)
While most of Steve Hopp’s essays are analytical (organic over non-, pasture-fed over cannibalism), he has a great sense of humor. Addressing Mad cow disease, “Cow’s blood (yum)…One company tried to test all its beef, but the USDA declared that illegal (possibly to protect any BSE cows from embarrassment). Would I suggest a beef boycott? Heavens no, cows are our friends (plus I believe that would be illegal).”
Through the romanticism and hard work of canning vegetables in the kitchen with a group of women, to all that comes with the stereotypical image of “harvest,” Kingsolver stays true to her goal, showing us that, absolutely, it can be done. Towards the end, we get some good scoops on cooking real pumpkin, the top section of the aforementioned vegetannual, saving potatoes and celebrating the holidays. The winter brings bean soups and squash and kale through the snow and February (the “hungry month”), right into the next asparagus season without missing a beat.
Yes, Barbara Kingsolver has her opinions but no one can accuse her of not practicing what she preaches. And her book addresses lots of issues, saving perhaps the most important for last.
“…I refused to believe a fuel-driven food industry was the only hand that could feed my family…Something can happen for us…through us, that will stop this earthly unraveling…However much we despise the monstrous serial killer called global warming, it’s hard to bring changes…how is it possible to inspire an appropriately repentant stance toward a planet that is really, really upset? The cure involves reaching down into ourselves and pulling out a new kind of person…this is a now-or-never kind of project.”
Definitely, food for thought.
Chuck Hinson owns Girdwood Books and News in downtown Girdwood.