• Homer youth recognized for her commitment to recycling
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Photo provided - Katherine Dolma shows a tote designed by Nomar's Kate Mitchell. Kate and her daughter, Jen, made three for Dolma's recycling work with nonprofits such as the Alaska Center for Coastal Studies.

Katherine Dolma achieved her Girl Scout Gold Award, scouting’s highest recognition, for her community work on reusing and recycling.
In working toward the award, Dolma completed 80 hours of service work based on the education and implementation of recycling for schools and businesses. This involved making presentations to school children, helping to change habits at her own school and helping with the Ecological girls’ annual fashion show that features clothing from recycled products.
“It’s a fun way to get people to think about recycling,” Dolma said, speaking of the fashion show.
Along the way, she came up with a recycling receptacle designed and sewn by Kate Mitchell, owner of Nomar’s Manufacturing. It was needed for use by the Alaska Center for Coastal Studies in its Yurt on the Homer Spit.
“She wanted to convince grownups ‘here’s how to recycle,’ and here’s how you can do it – and she needed something with separations,” Mitchell said. “I kept it simple.”
The brailer bag tote is a stretch from the famed brailer bags Nomar manufactures to hold a thousand of pounds of fish. But the result was a bag that can hold more weight, with compartments for glass, plastic and paper.
“It could become a shelf item, if there are people who want them. This happened to be me helping a young lady with an idea,” Mitchell said. “Every product in our store was a problem someone brought in and we found a solution. Most often they are fishermen – that’s what Nomar is – we create solutions to problems.”
Dolma brought problems to other people’s attention as well. Along with other team members of EcoLogical, a group formed to educate others on the need to dispose of trash in a healthier environmental manner, she convinced the Homer Middle School to give up styrofoam plates for school lunches on some days of the week. New habits take time to incorporate, however, and Dolma found she needed a lot of community help to get anything accomplished.
Another of her projects resulted in more recycling receptacles placed on the Homer Spit.
At the ceremony Dec. 27 at Homer Council on the Arts, where Dolma’s Gold Award was celebrated, Dolma credited the community with helping her make recycling more and more of a habit.
“Thank you to the community of Homer for being so receptive and incorporating recycling into their lives,” she said. In addition to Kate and Jen Mitchell at Nomar, she thanked many others who helped her.
“I feel like the community has been really receptive to recycling. There’s a higher number of bins at the dump and more sites on the Homer Spit,” Dolma said.

Photo by Brenda Dolma - Katherine Dolma, third from left, stands with fellow Girl Scouts after achieving her Girl Scout's Gold Award. The milestone was celebrated by her Girl Scout Troup on Dec. 27 at Homer Council on the Arts.

Even though Dolma has achieved Girl Scout’s highest award, the Homer High School sophomore said she is going to continue on with Girl Scouts and do more work on recycling.
There’s always more work to do on education about the environment and the benefits of seeing trash in new ways, she reasons.
“I’m going to keep doing the recycling work because there’s more to do,” she said. Homer High School, for example, doesn’t use plastic trays. A lot of styrofoam and paper fills the trash bins each day at lunch.
Dolma, along with EcoLogical’s Adi Davis and Taylor Ellison, were also recognized with the 2010 Spirit of Youth Award, and the 2010 and 2011 President’s Environmental Youth Award. She was individually awarded the 2009 Prudential Spirit Award (for beach cleanup).

• Dorothy Robert Cline’s new book available locally and on Amazon.com
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Mike and Dorothy Cline with Dorothy’s new book, “Ravens Paints the Birds.”

A long time ago, birds were colorless, a dull gray that displeased Raven and his friend Jay. Ever industrious from his lofty perch, Raven finds a colorful river bank, plucks a feather from Jay and sets to solving the problem.
The result, based on an ancient Athabascan story, is retold by retired Paul Banks Elementary teacher Dorothy Cline, who many will know as Dotty. The seeds of the story published in “Raven Paints the Birds” came to her four decades ago while working in the village of Tanana. 
“I played with the story for 40 years. It’s a little tale that was told to me in Tanana about why ravens are black. It was the kind of story you could think about and stretch it in your mind,” Cline recalled. “I would tell the story over and over through the years, to students, to my children and now my grandchildren. I’m still telling the story and finally, I decided to just write it.”
The story of raven’s ultimate cleverness isn’t without trickery. We find out why the grebe lacks a tail, how come the loon looks splattered and why the tanager twins come in separate coloring. The legendary bird’s behavior in the story documents an ancient knowledge of raven’s  arrogance, his inventiveness and his generosity. 
The indigenous tale, told to Cline by the late Lee Edwin, Sr. of Tanana, held these concepts even in its briefness. Cline “stretched and embellished” it, mindful of showing respect for the original story.
“Lee told me the story about ‘Crow’ who discovered a special place on the river where the clay was many colors.  He used the clay to paint the birds, but when it was time to paint Grebe, Swan and Loon he was tired, so he painted them any old way and that made them mad,” Cline recalled. “The three birds threw Crow in the dark mud, making him black.  In retaliation he kicked Grebe so it didn’t have any tail, he put ashes on the swan, which made it white and he splattered the loon.”
Cline adds in other bird species for a colorfully illustrated story book both children and adults can love. The town’s fondness for the Sandhill crane, for example, isn’t overlooked. Cline will tell  you how he received a red crested head. 
Colorful as the book is, the illustrations posed the biggest challenge for the author. To get Raven’s postures right, Dotty and her husband, Mike Cline, sat at the McNeil Canyon dumpster for hours observing them in action. In her worry about how to give his eyes correct expressions, she consulted Alaska artist Gary Lyon. 
“He said, ‘here’s what you do.’ He showed me how to make bird’s eyes more expressive. And he encouraged me. That kind of encouragement really helps you.”
Cline began with finger paintings by three of her five grandchildren. Then she cut shapes out and pasted them to a scenic background also made of the cutouts. The result gives the illustrations the look of playful but accurate shapes.
Both Mike and Dotty Cline were longtime teachers. She came to Tanana in the early 1970s as young teacher who acted as an intermediary for village people enrolled in a teacher education program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The idea was to help the college students remain in their own villages while completing their teaching certification. Cline was the “bridge” between villagers and the UAF. (One of her students was the daughter of Lee Edwin Sr., who had told her the story.) She met Mike when he also began working with this program. The two taught in Noorvik and Deering before their move to Homer where they wanted to raise their two children around their own culture. Dotty taught music 19 years at Paul Banks Elementary and served four years as the school librarian. 
In retirement, Mike has written and published “Bear Hunter: Adventures of a Koyukon Boy.” The Clines help and encourage one another on their projects. During the work of “Raven Paints the Birds,” Mike urged his wife on through encouragement. 
A seemingly simple children’s book can become complicated when it deals with an indigenous Alaskan tale. 
“I went through a lot of stories searching to see if it was written down by others, and I found only one reference to it in a collection,” Cline said. “I wanted to honor my responsibilities to the owners of the story. I struggled with that for a while. But it’s wonderful when we can share one another’s stories. We’re honoring that connection.”
Already at work on a new project, Cline is collecting photos and stories for a children’s biography on Paul Banks. He was a Homer homesteader, the school’s janitor and a musician whose songs she also compiled in a book. This will give new generations a knowledge of his many contributions. 

By Joseph Robertia
Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of Shelia Best - Lynn and Freddie Pollard bought and re-opened Rocky’s Straight-Inn Lodge off Oil Well Road in the Caribou Hills in Ninilchik, and named it Freddie’s Roadhouse.

From four-wheeler riders mudding in spring and summer, to hunters in fall, and to snowmachiners and dog mushers in winter, the Caribou Hills beckons temptingly to many who enjoy the outdoors.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a cabin there, though. For those who don’t, new ownership of a well-known establishment at Mile 16 of Oil Well Road will offer weary travelers some respite.
“People in the Caribou Hills needed a place and we wanted to give it to them,” said Lynn Pollard.
She and her husband, Freddie, have been working hard for the past year to renovate the structures and property of the old Rocky’s Straight-In Lodge, now called Freddie’s Roadhouse.
“My husband always liked the place when it was Rocky’s, and was sad when it closed,” Pollard said.
The establishment went on the real-estate market, and the Pollards made their move.
“The price was right,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll ever make money on it, but that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to give people a place to come and have fun, and that it’s more of a family establishment than a bar atmosphere.”
The Pollards have renovated the six cabins and two rooms for rent within the roadhouse, all of which have heat and electricity. They have also created a website and Facebook page. On the latter, they make regular updates about snow conditions in the hills and trails, some of which they are maintaining with grooming equipment until there is enough snow for the Caribou Hills Cabin Hoppers to break out its much-larger trail groomers.

“My husband is hoping to get snowmachine races going again up there, so he bought a groomer to work on a race strip and he has been putting in the Straight-In Trail,” Lynn said.
As fall turned to winter, Freddie’s has been staying open seven days a week, rather than five. Tawny Osmar manages the roadhouse during the week and said the place has been staying busy.
“We’ve got it going on,” she said. “In addition to the cabin and room rentals, we’ve got a restaurant where we serve burgers, Phillies, chicken strips and things like that. We serve beer and wine. We sell gas. We have Wi-Fi, and a big TV, and lots of games for families tired of sitting around their cabins — pinball, foosball, air hockey and pool.”

Photos courtesy of Shelia Best - The roadhouse’s main building includes a kitchen, bar, pool and other activities for visitors. The roadhouse has been a hub of activity for visitors to the Caribou Hills since the snow has arrived.

Osmar said that, in summer, most of the clientele were locals from Kenai, Soldotna or Ninilchik, but as snow has flown travelers from farther away are starting to stop in.
“We have a lot of people on day trips come up and stop in for lunch or a drink and then head back down, but we’re also starting to get cabin rentals from people coming down for the weekend from Anchorage, Eagle River and all over.”
With few other lodges open to the public in the Caribou Hills, and the Clam Shell Lodge no longer open to host races, fundraisers and other events, Steve Attleson, a board member with the Caribou Hills Cabin Hoppers, said that having a roadhouse on the road system is a boom for snowmachiners and others.
“It is, for sure, nice to have the place open again,” he said. “In addition to the food, drinks and lodging, there is plenty of room for parking. You could easily park 100 snowmachines or better there. So, for what we’re trying to do with our Napa Fun Run, the (Way Out Women) Ride, and helping with the (Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race), this should make a great place to stop, start or gather.”
Even when not taking part in an organized event, Attleson said that the roadhouse is a tempting treat after spending a day in the cold and wind.
“When getting together to go for a ride, it’s nice to have a place to go in, warm up, dry off and get some lunch before turning around and heading home,” he said.

By Joseph Robertia
Redoubt Reporter

Redoubt Reporter/Joseph Robertia - Gus Guenther, of Clam Gulch, leaves the starting chute during the 2011 Tustumena 100.

Like a musher plodding through a snowstorm, organizers of the Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race are continuing to move forward with this year’s event despite numerous challenges. Compensation for difficult conditions means the route, format and purse will all be significantly changed for 2012.
“We actually talked about taking this year off to regroup, but we decided the race will go on, but there will be a lot of changes,” said Tami Murray, executive director of the race, who has herself given up her salary percentage for organizing the event during the difficult financial times the race currently faces.
Much of the race’s current financial predicament stems from the T200 losing a huge chunk of its earnings as a result of three local establishments closing, all of which sold pull tabs to support the race. The J-Bar-B and the Riverside House went out of business, while the Tustumena Lodge closed for the winter.
“We’ve lost a lot of revenue but we’re working on getting gaming in other places,” Murray said.
To compensate for the loss of funding, race organizers applied for and received more than $10,000 designated for the Cohoe community as part of the state’s revenue sharing program, through the Kenai Peninsula Borough. This is the fourth year the T200 has received funding from the program, although in the past the received amount was less than $1,000 per year and totaled a cumulative $2,200 over all three years, of the nearly $120,000 available during that time.
“The revenue we got will cover operating expenses like straw, (a) snowmachine and gas to put in the trails, permitting fees, insurance, and Porta-Potties and generators,” Murray said.
However, with an operating expense of nearly $50,000 to hold the T200 and the accompanying T100 and Junior Tustumena races, this year’s funding is just enough for only a bare minimum of events.
“The biggest change is we are going to take a year off from the T100. It won’t be run this year,” Murray said.
The Junior T will take place, though, running from Kasilof up into the Caribou Hills for 25 miles, then returning the same route.
Dropping the T100 will help offset some of the organizational expense and will help minimize logistics in working out the T200 race trail. The course will be much different this year. Rather than going from Kasilof to Caribou Lake to the Clam Shell Lodge and back, this year the race will return to a trail similar to the first few years of the race. It will run from Kasilof to East End Road in Homer, to the (not open) Clam Shell Lodge, then it will repeat the same course in reverse to return to the finish line.

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter - A dog of Merissa Osmar, of Ninilchik, waits patiently in its dog box before the start of the T100 a few years ago.

“Not having the T100 teams camping this first year will help us get the bugs worked out at that checkpoint (at East End Road),” Murray said. “We’re hoping a few T100 entries will move up to the T200, and even if they have to scratch, they can do so there. It’s on the road system.”
Running the race through the southern peninsula and adding a new checkpoint will allow Homer residents to take part in will allow Homer residents to take part in the race. The Caribou Hills Cabin Hoppers will continue to assist with trails north of Caribou Lake, and the Homer-based SNOMADS snowmachine club will put in trails to the south of the lake and help with the new checkpoint.
Dean Osmar, who founded the race in 1984, has continued to race the T200, placing as high as second in 2006 and 2007. He said it will be good to race to Homer again.
“I haven’t been on that part of the trail in a while, but there’s a lot of traffic on it, so it should set up good if the snow holds,” he said. “The first couple of years we had the checkpoint on East End Road and it was a good spot, really good parking for the dogs and plenty of room for a bonfire.”
As when the race had an additional checkpoint at Rocky’s Café in the Caribou Hills — where 50-miles (or 150-miles if returning) into the race mushers were required to take four hours of rest, taken at their discretion, but broken up in one-hour increments — there will also be new rest requirements with the addition of the new stop.
“Now in addition to six hours rest at the Clam Shell, mushers will have to take four hours of rest at the East End Road checkpoint, taken in two-hour increments,” Murray said.
Osmar was happy to see additional rest put back into the race.
“The T200 is such a tough race. It’s really not good to march them for 100 miles at a time,” he said. “It’ll be good to break it up for the dogs. They need it.”
Time between mandatory rests isn’t the only thing cut this year. The race’s purse will also decrease, from $25,000 to $10,000. And rather than paying 10 positions, the purse will only be split between the top five finishers. It will pay $5,000 for first, $2,500 for second, $1,500 for third, $700 for fourth and $300 for fifth.
“We want to continue to make it worthwhile for mushers from far away to come to our race,” Murray said.
To cut costs further, there also will be no pre-race banquet, and the finisher’s banquet will be smaller and no longer mandatory.
“Instead of drawing their starting orders at a pre-race banquet, mushers will now go out in the order they sign up,” Murray said.
Registration for the T200 opens on Nov. 15, while the race start is scheduled for Jan. 28. The entry fee is $200, down from $250 in years past.
The T200 also will host a 5-kilometer and 10-kilometer Turkey Trot fundraiser at 2 p.m. Nov. 25 at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center. The entry fee is $20 per person, with proceeds going toward the race. Registration for either the T200 or the Turkey Trot can be done online at the race’s Web site, www.tustumena200.com.

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Photo provided - "Sunrise and Friends," Tim Quinn, Marjolein Cardon, Sunrise Kilcher-Sjoeberg, Liniane Sarno and Sharon Friesen-Schulz perform in concert at 7 p.m. Friday at Homer Council on the Arts.

An unusual musical friendship started on Valentines Day 25 years ago. Two young female singer-songwriters performed on pizza nights at the Fresh Sourdough Express and such events as helping raise funds for the Tony Knowles for Governor campaign.
Sunrise Kilcher-Sjoeberg and Sharon Friesen-Schulz started in 1987 performing together, finding a unique match in their ability to create a certain sound and songs together. It’s a musical collaboration that aged with refinement through the years, so that today there’s an uncanny ability to finish each other’s music. But their performance gigs in public grew less and less after Schulz married, had children and took on full-time work as the speech and language pathologist at Paul Banks Elementary.
Concert goers will have a rare chance to see the two perform 7 p.m. Friday at the Homer Council on the Arts. Billed as a gallery concert with Sunrise and friends, or, as the band is called “Relatively Famous,” the two will be backed up by Marjolein Cardon on bass, Lindianne Sarno on violin and Tim Quinn playing banjo and ukulele.
“This is huge departure for us, to sing with the backup band on instruments,” Sunrise said. “It’s also the first time Sharon and I will present a body of original work.”
The two singer-songwriters compose music together, sometimes writing pieces down and other times improvising. “We have a natural collaboration. We just naturally hear what is there in one another’s work,” Schulz said.
Schulz has reminded Sunrise through the years to write her music down. Sunrise’s tendency is to compose songs, sing it through and depend on her memory. “She realized I was composing in my head and so she brought me a book. This started helping me to compile my music before there were computers,” Sunrise recalled.
Though Schulz was busy juggling other obligations, music was always important to her. She was born in Austin, Texas and grew up as the only child in a musical family. Her mother Rosemary Burke Belvin, is a country-folk-pop singer-songwriters.
Many times, however, she had to turn Sunrise down as performance opportunities came up.
“Sunrise would still call me. She kept calling me and inviting me to join her and perform. I appreciate that she never gave up on me,” she said.
Although no other musician that either of them worked with through the years seemed as close a match as one another, there was a long break between performances for Sunrise and Schulz until more recently. Schulz’s daughter Ayla graduates from Homer High this year. Son Luka is now 13.
Sunrise and Friends’ concert on Friday will feature original songs developed across the decades by the two musicians. The theme tends to be even more current today than it was back then: being earth aware. Teamed with Cardon, Sarno and Quinn, their music is said to “provide a rich tapestry that brings a new level and fullness to their music.” Sunrise and Schulz will accompany each other and play guitar or various percussive instruments.
The name of the group “Relatively Famous” was coined as a humorous play on words, since most all the members are related to someone who made it big. Sunrise is singer Jewel Kilcher’s aunt. Schulz has a cousin who produced the music for President Obama’s inauguration. Sarno is daughter of the physician Dr. John Sarno who is an expert on back pain for national television, and an author. Carden’s nephew is a famous cartoonist.
But for now, the spotlight is on Sharon and Sunrise as they celebrate the opportunities to come to build on their unique harmonies. Together again, they are looking forward to a 2012 CD adventure, the Seldovia Solstice Music Festival and “as much singing as life allows,” they wrote on the promotion for the Friday event.

• Rowan Mulvey’s class at the senior center passes test of time
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Lani Raymond, Gerrianne Reiter, and Fran Moore attend the Thursday class at the Homer Senior Center. Reiter (in back) has attended Rowan Mulvey's course for six years.

If a doctor were to prescribe T’ai Chi for arthritis or T’ai Chi for memory loss, it might sound like a bit of a stretch.
Yet, at the Homer Senior Center, the art of T’ai Chi taught by Rowan Mulvey for several years now has served good medicine to dozens of seniors through the practice.
“I’ve had bad arthritis for while now,” said senior Gerrianne Reiter. “T’ai Chi helps with the pain.”
For Lani Raymond, T’ai helps with breathing, flexibility and memory. “I almost forgot to mention memory,” Raymond quipped. “There are 108 moves, and you need to remember each to do them in the right order. I’m not there yet.”
T’ai Chi is an Asian form of exercise characterized by a series of slow and deliberate ballet-like body movements.
The routines keep participants constantly moving, but are gentle on the joints.
The class, taught for one-hour two days a week in the dining room annex at the Homer Senior Citizens Center, is open to the public as well. HSC offers the classes Mulvey teaches for any community member. Members of HSC pay $3 per class, while the general public is asked to pay $5 per class.
Mulvey was approached in 2005 by the Friendship Center’s activities coordinator, Kathy Hedges, to offer T’ai Chi to residents after she had read of its many health benefits. Now six years into the practice, many seniors in town have benefited from the experience.
“The thought of the (HSC) board was that it would be a wonderful thing to make available. Its benefits are increased flexibility and range of motion, increased strength and stamina, improved digestion, better sleep,” Mulvey said. “People find they’re able to be more hardy to stresses in other parts of their lives.”

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Instructor Rowan Mulvey demonstrates a Tai Chi position. Instructor Rowan Mulvey demonstrates a Tai Chi position.

The moves in Ta’i Chi can help strengthen during a time in life when the elderly fear falling and breaking a hip, though Mulvey’s students have ranged from age 22 to 80. It is often referred to as ‘meditation in motion’ since it corporates the whole being, not just the body.
“It is structured in such a way so they can come in an ongoing basis. They don’t have to sign up and then come to every class,” she said.
Mulvey learned the classical art of T’ai Chi Chuan Yang Long Form about 12 years ago from a master in Nikiski, Larry Fred Staatz, who offered a course at the Kachamak Bay Campus.
After receiving training from the root teacher, called a sensei, the tradition is to then study further with other masters, which Mulvey completed in northern New York, in Montreal, and in south Florida.
“This was never a dead art; it was never a lost art, but was practiced continuously for many centuries,” she tells her students at a Thursday session. “This testifies to its strength.”
Each move incorporates breathing, so that even the internal organs are gaining benefits.
“Moves are based on the rhythm of the breath – each move has a specific part of the breath that is associated with it. By the time the session is complete, every muscle from the head to the toe has been exercised,” Mulvey explains.
Poetic names characterize the moves. “Pick up the needle from the sea floor,” Mulvey instructs the students. “Carry tiger to the mountain. White crane spreads wings.”
As she goes, Mulvey explains myology or the basic units of muscles in action. As one move targets leg muscles, she talks about the gastrocnemius muscle of the calf. Beneath that, lower on the leg, is the soleus, which stretches underneath the gastrocnemius as well.
“This matters because two different groups of muscle are being stretched, depending on whether your leg is stretched or bent,” she said. “I like them to know what each move is impacting.”
Gerrianne Reiter, who said T’ai chi helps her with arthritis pain, has been with Mulvey since she started offering the classes six years ago.
How the pain relief occurs is both by lessening the pain and helping the person cope with pain, Mulvey said.
Another student, Marilyn Dougdale, has faithfully come to class twice a week for the past two years. Since she had to miss the Thursday session, Marilyn came anyway to explain the reason.
“I’m really disappointed that I can’t stay. After twice a week for two years, I am really hooked on this form of exercise,” she said. “It helps me maintain my balance, and helps me feel better in so many ways.”
Senior centers across the country usually have some T’ai Chi program offered, after the gentle exercise was recommended by such far reaching organizations as the AARP, the National Council on Aging and the Mayo clinic.
“This gave more people more access to it,” Raymond said. “And it’s open to the public, for all ages, since it’s available here. We’re really hoping more people will take advantage of the classes. Because you can’t do it without an instructor.”
A chair-exercise version of T’ai Chi also is taught at HSC by Mulvey. Starting again in January, Mulvey will offer a T’ai Chi class through the Homer Community Recreation Program as well.
For more information, call 235-7655.

By Randi Somers
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Randi Somers - Christina Whiting left for Spain Saturday for a 500 mile pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.

Christina Whiting left Homer last Saturday for Spain where she’ll explore the Basque region for two weeks. She’ll then begin a solo five-week, 500-mile pilgrimage across Spain on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a portion of a network of trails that lace Europe, known as the Way of Saint James. This ancient trail, in use for over 1,000 years, is based on the discovery of the tomb of Saint James the apostle, one of Jesus’ disciples, in Galicia early in the ninth century. Saint James is now interred in the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Christina will walk the Camino Frances (French) route, starting in St. Jean Pied de Port, a small town in the French Pyrenees mountains, and ending in Santiago. This ancient route meanders through villages, small towns and the countryside as well as through some cities and along highways.
“I’m eager to explore the countryside and to interact with local villagers. From what I’ve researched, pilgrims on this well-traveled path have an easy time getting to know the locals because the walkers are such a common sight,” she said. “People who live in the area understand and appreciate the trail’s appeal and many of them have completed the walk themselves. I look forward to the sense of community.”
Even though it is called a “pilgrimage,” Whiting said her walk is not motivated by religion, but rather it’s a continuation of her lifelong love of traveling, exploring and meeting people from different cultures. This insatiable desire to be on the move was instilled during her childhood by her mother.
“My mom is responsible for my wanderlust,” Whiting said. “There were six of us kids, ranging in age from six months to 15 years, and Mom would pack us all up in the car with just basic supplies and we’d spontaneously hit the road with no maps, no plan, just a wonderful sense of adventure and eagerness to explore. Sometimes we ended up in campgrounds, sometimes at hotels and sometimes at the homes of friends or family members,” she said. Carrying on with that spontaneous sense of adventure, Whiting indulges her inner gypsy in her 1986 Volkswagen camper van (the brown one covered with bumper stickers that you see around town), exploring the roads and coastal communities as well as the Alcan Highway. One future goal is to drive from Alaska to Mexico and back, collecting stories and images of other travelers.
Whiting, born in Alaska and raised in northern Canada, left home at 17 and has been traveling regularly ever since. Her departure for this walk coincides with her Sept. 27 birthday when she’ll turn 42. She started planning the trip two years ago as her rite of passage to a new decade. Whiting loves to travel and typically takes four or five trips a year.
“I like to travel very simply, with just the basic supplies and an open heart,” she said. When she was turning 30, she decided she would celebrate all of her birthdays from then on by alternating international travel with national and local travel around her birthday month every year. She celebrated her 30th birthday on a ferry crossing between Ireland and Scotland and since then has spent her birthdays in a variety of places including Mexico, Hawaii, Canada, New England, New York, Kodiak, Cordova, on the Alaska Highway, hiking the Resurrection Trail, Hatcher‘s Pass and Crow Pass. This fall she is adding Spain to that list and next year she intends to travel Africa.
“Again, it was my mom who created a very special day for each of us on our birthdays. Ceremonies, traditions and rituals are very important to me, and I thought that spending my birthday doing something I love so much, traveling and exploring, seeing new places and meeting new people, I would continue to honor this,” she said. “It’s one of the best gifts I could have ever given myself, this gift of travel. I’ve grown so much as a person and have met amazing wonderful people all along the way. The more I travel, the more I realize how this experience of being human is what connects us to one another and to the planet.
I encourage everyone of every age to just go. Step off your front porch and wander. You never know who you’ll meet around the corner. I have been fortunate to have several life-changing experiences and have made friends for life with folks I’ve met in unusual and unexpected places.”
Christina said she prefers to travel in off season and to places not frequented by most visitors. “What I love to experience during my travels is the heart and soul of an area and its people, local music, arts and culture. I’ve found that the easiest way to do this is in quieter times and off the beaten path,” she said. Although the Camino Frances is the most commonly traveled of the Spanish pilgrimage routes and therefore an unusual choice for her, Whiting said she was drawn to the route for that very reason. “I love the idea that I’m walking the same path that millions of other people have walked over a thousand years and each for reasons as individual as they are. That feels very sacred to me.”
Over 94,000 people reportedly completed the Santiago trail in 2005, up from 2,500 in 1985 and those numbers keep growing.
She will be carrying just a backpack with one change of clothes, toiletries, a small journal, her camera and the Camino pilgrims‘ trademark, a seashell, which she collected from the Diamond Creek beach. She plans to walk 15 to 20 miles a day, staying in hostels and pensions in the villages and towns scattered along the route. Though she does have a November return ticket, Whiting has no timetable for the walk. “I want this journey to unfold naturally, to give myself time to explore and meet people and places as I am drawn. I’m giving myself five weeks to walk the 500 miles and then a week to explore further or to rest, whatever I feel I need to do,” she said. “I’m approaching this walk as a physical journey inward. I hope that by creating a physical distance from my daily life, I’ll gain a deeper perspective of my current path and paths I’m considering. This isn’t a midlife crisis, but a midlife re-evaluation. My life is great and full and I’m very blessed with wonderful people and opportunities, but I have been feeling out of balance for the past few years and like I’m not meeting my full potential so I am choosing some quiet alone time to delve deeper in to my spirit to reconnect with my center. Quite a small goal, isn’t it?” she said.
Whiting’s boyfriend Taz Tally, a photographer and adventurer as well, secured a job in San Sabastian, teaching a one-day photography workshop and will accompany Whiting for the first two weeks in Spain. They’ll explore the Basque region of Spain together before he returns home and she begins her walk.
To do the pilgrimage, Whiting is taking a hiatus from her jobs at the Fireweed Gallery, as Shorebird Festival coordinator, as a freelance writer and as grant facilitator for the energy program that she and Tally manage.
Also, as a professional photographer who exhibits her work year round at the Fireweed Gallery, Whiting plans to display images she creates during this pilgrimage at the gallery in March 2012. “I’ve met so many local people who have heard of this pilgrimage, who have wanted to do it themselves and who are excited for me. I will be eager to share my experiences and perhaps inspire others to venture out on their own pilgrimage. My images will be a visual story of what I hope will be an amazing once-in-a-lifetime journey, both inward and outward,” she said.

• “Imam Cimiucia: Our Changing Sea,” documents elders’ observations from Port Graham and Nanwalek
by Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Elder Nick Tanape

“The ocean is part of me. Sometimes, I just have to go down there to smell the ocean,” said elder Simeon Kvasnikoff of Port Graham.
Tied as they are to the sea, the Sugpiat of Port Graham and Nanwalek are reading the unfolding story of climate change in grasses and ice storms. Elder Nick Tanape notices bears aren’t quite as fat as they should be before heading off to a winter’s sleep.
Chitons, a shellfish stuck to rocks and exposed only on low tides, are dwindling alarmingly in number.
Air flights out of Nanwalek see frequent weather delays even in summer that didn’t used to occur.
“There are so many stories that can be learned from just this one place. Everyone is seeing it,” Tanape said.
Tanape worked with authors Henry Huntington and Anne Salomon to document climate change in “Imam Cimiucia: Our Changing Sea,” a hard cover book illustrated by photographs from Lisa Williams.
The book blends western science and traditional Native knowledge to uncover some of the ecological, social, and economic causes of coastal ecosystem change on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.
At a time when a flood of information on climate change is being presented, the stories in this book will strike a different chord. It gives the oral accounts of Sugpiat history in the area in order to arrive at a context for the changes they are witnessing.
“I am worried,” Tanape said. “Anyone would be concerned. I think as human beings we are destroying our earth. We are being very careless with what we throw away.”
Tanape has served on numerous commissions, and currently serves on the Seal and Sea Lion Commission, and has worked for many years on natural resource and fisheries issues. He is a life-long subsistence hunter who contributed to the Kachemak Bay Science Conferences. Anne Salomon is assistant professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Huntington is a scientist with the Pew Environment Group specializing in polar studies.
Together, the authors allow the indigenous stories to emerge from the speakers as they weave knowledge of historical and social cycles in with their environmental observations.
“The most recent decline that we have observed is that of the bidarki. Also known as the black leather chiton, or urriitq (u-hee-duk) in Sugt’stun, this intertidal invertebrate is not only an important source of food, it is part of our stories, songs, our culture and our traditions,” Tanape wrote. “We started observing declines in the number and size of bidarkis somewhere between 1990-1995. Bidarki shells found in lower Cook Inlet middens, prehistoric garbage heaps as old as 3,000 years or more, suggest that these chitons have been harvested for thousands of years in this area.”
This is a story of “multiple causes,” though, with elders and scientists alike acknowledging that untangling the various factors contributing to the declining marine life is a difficult task.
One elder, Walter Meganack Jr., of Port Graham puts it this way: “Declines are likely due to a chain reaction. There is still, to this day, no one reason for all these declines.”
Everything from disturbances like earthquakes to overfishing can cause disruptions in an ecosystem, where nothing happens in isolation.
The stories travel back in time, looking at how their ancestors handled challenges during times of food shortages. Simeon Kvasnikoff says the Aleutian chain of islands was populated as they ran low on food.
“They were looking for a better place and better food,” he said. Sugpiat, like many other Alaska Native groups, lived semi-nomadic lives to rotate around an area for hunting and fishing. An elder talks about ancestors occupying the Kenai Fjords on the southern shores of the Kenai Peninsula, Nuka, Yalik and Aialik Bays.
The discussion moves then from the seasonal lifestyle to one of living permanently in villages. When Russians arrived, Native people were forced to hunt the otter, which for a time decimated that population.
By the early 1900s, salmon canneries dominated the economy. Canneries moved into Port Graham, Seldovia, Portlock and Nanwalek.
In the history of the area, interviews lend insight on a range of decades and events, including the 1989 Valdez oil spill. They discuss the custom of sharing subsistence foods – sending it Fed-ex to relatives who are away for training, or other reasons.
Even the sociological loss of language works into the “changing sea” inquiry. Elders pointed out that the younger harvesters lack the information that could be transferred to them through language. Rhoda Moonin, an Alutiiq language teacher, said when they speak in Alutiiq, “we hear our ancestors’ voices… it is our desire that each new Alutiiq generation will learn to speak Sugt’stun so they will always know who they are.”
Given its bleak subject matter, the stories seldom veer off into discouragement. Tanape concludes: “But the situation is not beyond hope. Much knowledge remains with our elders today. If we can pass it on, if our younger people are willing to learn it, those hard-won lessons from countless generations may still be sustained in our communities, together with the healthy ecosystems that nourish us.”
Funding to print this book was provided by a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation to the Port Graham Village Council. Additional support was provided by the Alaska Sea Grant College Program, Chugach Alaska Corporation, Chugach Heritage Foundation, University of Alaska Press and Pratt Museum. Sales proceeds will benefit the Port Graham Environmental Program and the Nanwalek Resource and Fisheries Program. The book is available at the Homer Bookstore and at the Pratt Museum.

By Randi Somers
Homer Tribune

Steve Wolfe, wrestling coach and teacher at Homer High School for 30 years, has written his third book about the sport that he says is mainly a tribute to his outstanding athletes, most notably in this book, Tela O’Donnell who represented the United States in the 2004 Olympics.
He first coached O’Donnell when she was in the eighth grade. “A beautiful, petite farm girl raised by a single parent, her mother Claire,” he writes. The young athlete grew up “wrestling sheep, fixing fences, building barns and riding horses.”
He notes that she was tough, and he saw early on that she had talent for wrestling – but the junior high boys were afraid to touch her. He made her his demonstration partner and the boys got over their fear of “girl germs.”
Wolfe found her to be “a wonderful coachable personality.” Soon he found himself coaching Tela with Siri Neal as her opponent for national competitions where she won the championship while still a sophomore in high school. Then, it was on to university on a wrestling scholarship where she won the women’s College National Championship as a freshman. From there, she and three other girls on her college team were offered positions as wrestlers at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. where they were groomed 24 hours a day. They put their education on hold to prepare for the 2004 Olympics which was the first year women were allowed wrestle.
She was one of four Alaskans, two of whom were Homer athletes (rower Stacey Borgman was the other) who traveled to Greece to compete in the 2004 Olympics.
Wolfe treasured his opportunity to travel with O’Donnell to Athens to coach her at this event in her life.
Like his previous works, “Call Me Coach” and “Call Us Champions,” “Call Us Olympians” is about more than the sport. It also contains entertaining and insightful tales of school politics and life in Homer and his family life. His digression into the important features of Homer includes a chapter about Brother Asaiah Bates and his influence. He writes that some people called him a “kook.” Adding that, “It was impossible not to like him. He was the sweetest gentlest, nicest ‘kook’ you could ever hope to meet.”
A graduate of Brigham Young University, Wolfe earned his master’s degree at Alaska Pacific University. Not only does he coach, at the age of 56, he also still wrestles competitively. In 1991 he won his ninth consecutive state championship in the open division and won the national championship in Las Vegas for his age and weight. Although he has retired from teaching and coaching at Homer High, he continues to coach students at the Russian village of Voznesenka and at Anchor Point Junior High, and is president and coach of the Popeye Wrestling Club.
In his book’s conclusion, he writes, “Whether you are a Tela O’Donnell who wrestles in the Olympics or if you just learn that you can be a better or more successful person (wrestling with daily challenges), wrestling makes us all Olympians.”
He will be autographing his latest book at The Homer Bookstore from 3-6 p.m. July 29, and at Safeway from 1-6 p.m. July 30.

• Words cannot express the tragedy, grief that war’s violence leaves in its path
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Women in Black Darlene Hildebrand, Kate Finn and Jane Regan stand in silent vigil for peace and justice each Tuesday at noon at Pioneer and Lake Street.

The Women in Black stand at a park by one of Homer’s only traffic lights each Tuesday at noon, eight years and four months into the Iraqi conflict known as the Second Operation Desert Storm.
Occasionally a driver goes by and wags a middle finger at them. They also have received thousands of supportive waves, bouquets of flowers, honks and many cups of coffee and tea. In Homer’s peaceful hamlet, other than the Women’s vigil, one could easily forget America’s involvement in the devastating wars raging in the Middle East.
“I would say 99 percent of our interaction has been positive. But that hasn’t always been the case,” explains Woman in Black Kate Finn. The wars prompted their vigils over the past decade, but the overall message is simply to promote peace and justice, the women said.
Homer’s Women in Black ponder the message people might be able to see, if not hear. They have said when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end, they won’t need to keep street vigils. But until then, they faithfully appear each Tuesday at noon at the small park next to the Homer Fire Department.
Homer’s group is only one of two active in Alaska on a regular bases.
“We stand for peace and justice,” said Darlene Hildebrand. “Words fan the flames, but silence can be potent.”
Kate Finn, Jane Regan, Cheryl Rykaczewski, Trisha Caron and Hildebrand aren’t members of an organization so much as a movement of women across the world. During the last 30 years, women have found their ability to express outrage at political, military, economic and personal violence by taking to the streets in silent protest. The practice began in Israel in 1988 when a mother, aggrieved by the death of her son, stood in silent, non-violent protest. The movement spread, including Palestinian mothers, to Italy when “Women Visiting Difficult Places” aimed to promote dialogue and supported the Israeli women on both sides of the conflict. When war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Italian women went to Belgrade to visit activists protesting the ethnic cleansing, rape, torture and mass displacement. This led to a worldwide movement.
Even though its not an organization – no dues, no membership rosters, no presidents – Women in Black were awarded the 2001 Millennium Peace Prize for Women by the United Nations.
For Homer’s Kate Finn, WiB exists not as an organization, “but as a means of communicating and a formula for action.”
“A recurring thread of our numerous WiB discussions is that we human beings are deeply interconnected. When one person suffers, each of us is diminished, and when one of  us is filled with love, each of us is enhanced by this greatest of human experiences,” Finn said. “This concept, rolling around in my head as I stand at Women in Black, allows my thoughts and emotions to move in the direction of compassion and peace, exactly where I want them to be.”
Homer’s WiB see better choices than war as a way to resolve conflict. As Jane Regan points out, war comes at an enormous financial cost – $1 million per soldier per year.
“I stand because I want to make the violence visible. And in this time of economic crisis, I think we can’t afford these wars. As the nation is discussing right now, we need to live within our income – but for some reason they aren’t talking about the money it costs at more than $1 million per soldier per year,” Regan said. “Our country spends more on the military budget than the next seven countries combined. We can’t afford to do that.”
In some war-ravaged countries, it’s a crime even to stand in silence.
“It’s an opportunity where I can, in a simple way in my own community, stand up for two values that I feel are really important: peace and justice. And that’s as fancy as it gets,” Hildebrand said. “I can stand, and there are a lot who can’t stand because their lives don’t permit that kind of time commitment. I’ve been told: ‘I’m so glad you are still standing,’ by people who can’t do that. It’s a powerful and kind visual reminder to people when they drive by of how important peace and justice is in the world.”
WiB’s ideas trickle down to the individual level. “As I stand, I reflect on kindness and how I’ve been kind or unkind in my life, and just be with that, too. Because we are all in this together,” Hildebrand said.
Violence doesn’t work, and it’s disheartening that humans still use it as the primary way to resolve conflicts, Regan points out.
“One of my favorite quotes, credited to the Buddha is: ‘If you see yourself in others, then whom can you harm?’ is a powerful mind changer for me, when I can pull back for just a moment to incorporate that into who I really am at any given moment,” Kate Finn said.