Homer Tribune » Feature

Young actors hone talents at Pier One

Newsroom — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:41:56 +0000

• Students show off skills earned at camp
By Randi Somers
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Randi Somers - Cave dwellers (from left) Emily Baylink, Joshua Wisner, Nolan Bunting (standing) and Jake Marquardt.

Capping three weeks of training with the Youth Theatre Skills Conservatory, nine thespians, ages 10-12, will showcase their talents in three Pier One performances Friday and Saturday.
“This theatre skills camp is a sampler course,” Co-director Clara Noomah said. “Most of the kids have some experience and this gives them a taste of a variety of things.”
Noomah said the scenes – taken mostly from several different plays, are light-hearted, “Vaudeville, musical, fun.”
Kate Spence, another young Homer talent, choreographed three dance sequences.
In a scene from “The Princess Bride,” Lindsey Schneider and Emily Baylink engage in a duel of wits pitting kidnapper Vizzini against the good guy, the Man in Black. It’s the classic “which goblet of wine is poisoned?” question with death the payoff for the loser.
In “The Harry and Sam Dialogues,” Joshua Wisner and Landon Bunting play friends who pass the time by asking each other philosophical questions which get lost in inane quests for more details. The riddle,“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” devolves into questions about the lumberjack’s lunch pail.
Schneider and Nolan Bunting act a scene from “One Tennis Shoe” by Shel Silverstein. It discusses the lady’s habit of stashing unlikely items, like a bowl of cooked oatmeal, in her purse. He tells her she is becoming a “bag lady,” and the discussion develops into an analysis of the eclectic contents of her bag.
In “The Reluctant Dragon,” Breia Greggory plays the dragon, while Drewey Wimmerstedt is Sir George and Jake Marquardt is John. They try to decide whether or not the dragon and Sir George should fight, since it is the conventional thing to do.
Nineteen-year-old Leeza Maestre and Clara Noomah direct the performances, which include a new piece created by the scriptwriting trainees. Although the two have been active with Pier One Theatre for some time, this is their first time for being totally in charge as a team.
Noomah interned as a director 11 years ago, and at age 15, directed “Keeper of Dreams” and co-directed “Ugly Duckling.” She is home for the summer after completing her first year at Williams College in the Massachusetts Berkshires where she is working on a double major of environmental sciences and women and gender.
Maestre has been active in the theatre since moving here in 2008. Before that, she performed in high school plays in Colorado. She too has completed her first year of college, at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho, where she is majoring in nursing.
In addition to the four “playlets,” the troupe will stage the caveman play they wrote during the workshop.

What: Youth Theatre Showcase
When: June 25, 7 p.m. June 26, 3 and 7 p.m.
Where: Pier One Theatre on the Spit
Tickets: General admission $9, senior/student $8, Raven’s Club $7, cast family $6. Advance tickets available at Etude Studio and the Bookstore, or by phoning 235-7333 for reservations.
More info: 235-7333 or www.pieronetheatre.com

Tracking Todd

Newsroom — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:25:43 +0000

Name: Todd Cook
Age: 42
Occupation: Water Treatment Plant Superintendent, City of Homer
Riding: Harley Sportster 1200L

June 16:
Todd arrived early this morning in Miami, Florida where it was a steamy 96 degrees. He spent most of the day at Peterson’s Harley Davidson, where, while they were racing to get Todd’s bike together, they also went overboard in outfitting Todd with T-shirts, motorcycle cleaner and other paraphernalia free of charge.
June 19:
The last couple of days Todd’s been fine-tuning his bike, working out the bugs and coming up with faster/easier ways to fuel up. It seems that about the only motorcycle Harley made with the gas cap in the middle of the tank was — you guessed it — the model Todd bought. It also makes for difficult fueling with a tankbag strapped to it. Todd is planning to add a Powerpoint to the bike so he can charge his cell phone and — if he can get it working — a personal locator so we can track him on his trek.
This morning, around 3:30 a.m. Alaska time, Todd was sitting in line to get his bike inspected. Rumor had it that it was a grueling three-hour wait, but Todd got through in only two hours. After that, he sat down to get a bite to eat and gave me a ring. Looks like it’s a go!
Tomorrow, they line up at 4 a.m. and the green flag drops at 6 a.m.
June 21:
It was (and still is) a long day for Todd. I briefly talked to him tonight, and he still had a couple more hours to go until they were going to stop. He said he stopped and slept for an hour and a half since the start of the race Sunday morning.
Check Point No. 3 is Flaming Gorge Harley Davidson in Rock Springs, Wyo., a whopping 2,753 miles away.

A modern band of gypsies

Tribune Moderator — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:48:35 +0000

• Traditional sounds of Eastern Europe meet modern era of rock

By Katie Emerick
Homer Tribune

Photo Provided

They come from a world steeped in tradition and offer an art that is as much a celebration of the past as it is revolutionary. Brothers Olivier and Eric Slabiak, virtuosic violinists, stand at the helm of Les Yeux Noirs, a six-piece explosion of gypsy jazz, klezmer and Yiddish music from Paris. The group performs at the Down East Saloon next weekend, and — aside from profound talent — what stands to make the group so electrifying is their defiance of genre lines and an extraordinary ability to combine traditional sounds with an exploratory rock spirit.

Born to a family rich in musicianship, the brothers were raised in Paris after their forbearers fled Poland in the 1920s. They grew up trained as classical violinists, but found constant inspiration in the Slabiak family heritage. Grandma was a Yiddish singer, and uncles were both professional violinists. They, along with family friend Django Reinhardt, would transform the family bakery into a rehearsal space.

The fascination each brother had with his Eastern European roots fueled the musical exploration — even as both continued classical music education at the prestigious Brussels Conservatoire.

In 1992, the brothers founded “Les Yeux Noirs,” drawing the name — which translates into “the black eyes” — from an old Russian gypsy tune. Pulling inspiration from folklore and fantasy, poetry and contemporary, Les Yeux Noir lists influences as Tom Waits, David Bowie and Bjork.

Shamelessly contemporary with amplified fiddles and foot-peddles, electric guitars, bass and a full drum kit, the tight ensemble impresses with its ability to effectively transform Eastern European music in a way that maintains the spirit of its past. Utilizing pop sensibilities and cross-cultural understandings of world music, Les Yeux Noirs can set Yiddish lullabies to driving drum beats or Baudelaire poems to electrified polka rhythms.

With five studio albums released since their debut in 1992, Les Yeux Noirs has consistently built up their repertoire, bringing new interpretations to songs born out of Central and Eastern Europe. The transient nature of gypsy and klezmer music, the Jewish Diaspora and the Slabiak family’s personal familiarity with each translates to the wide range of music they create. Constantly exploring and reexamining themselves and their pasts, Les Yeux Noirs’ most recent studio album, “Tchorba,” is perhaps the most diverse offering to date. Bringing into the mix a greater number of vocal tracks, as well as pop trip-hop fusions, funk and reggae beats, the album presents a compelling dance that is both exotic and nostalgic.

The Bunnell Street Arts Center, working in collaboration with Down East Saloon and Downward Dog Productions, brings Les Yeux Noirs to town for the weekend show. Working from a grant provided by TourWest and subsidies from the National Endowment of the Arts, Asia Freeman of Bunnell said the opportunity to present such a unique band was one she couldn’t pass up.

“The quality of their music and the innovation that they represent create a really interesting combination,” Freeman said. “From klezmer rock to Yiddish pop, they have these layers that make it a really fun band. Homer appreciates adventure and has a lot of respect for musicians. But we also love to dance.”

The grant from TourWest — a program that makes it possible for smaller communities to bring in larger, more expensive international acts — was one Freeman felt would be perfect to use toward Les Yeux Noirs.

“We [the Bunnell Street Arts Center] only get a couple of TourWest grants a year, so it may just be once or twice a year that we’re able to bring in really innovative, passionate and educated musicians to connect Homer with the world,” Freeman said. “We’re built upon adventure here, but it’s also extremely isolated.”

She added that the best comparison of the cultural authenticity and uniqueness embodied by Les Yeux Noirs was with Huun Huur Tu, the ensemble of Tuvan throat singers who have previously visited Homer.

Les Yeux Noirs will bring their fiery orchestrations and soulful interpretations of a world both past and present to the Down East Saloon for two nights: April 2 and 3. The Bunnell Streets Arts Center is also offering a unique acoustic opportunity to see a short, unplugged set from the band at Bunnell as part of a free outreach in association with their First Friday event.

Les Yeux Noirs
When: April 2, 8 p.m. April 3, 9 p.m.
Where: Down East Saloon
Tickets: $25 door; advance $22 general/$20 Bunnell members
Free outreach Short Set by Les Yeux Noirs 6 p.m. April 2 at Bunnell Arts Center

Lady M’ alumna to mix it up at March Madness

Newsroom — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:53:25 +0000

• Homer’s Layland heads to national tourney with Puget Sound Loggers

By Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune

Photo by Frank Riordan - Lindsay Layland, who graduated from Homer High School last year, is starting as a freshman for the University of Puget Sound Lady Logger basketball team. Layland and her teammates will participate in this year’s NCAA Division III National Tournament.

Former Mariner basketball standout Lindsay Layland will join her Lady Logger teammates in representing the University of Puget Sound at the NCAA Division III National Tournament this weekend in Newberg, Ore.
Layland starts as a freshman for the 13th-ranked Loggers and Coach Suzy Barcomb, and is averaging seven points and six rebounds per game. She is currently undeclared, but is leaning toward psychology as a major.
Before heading off to first-round play on Friday against the University of Redlands, Layland sat down to answer a few questions for the Homer Tribune.

Homer Tribune: So, how does it feel to get invited to the Big Dance?
Layland: It feels pretty stupendous. Here I am, privileged to be on a team and part of an amazing program that has the opportunity to extend their season into March. Of more than 430 Division III teams in the nation, I am so pumped that ours is only one of 64 remaining and going on to the national tournament.

HT: What got you here, as a team?
Layland: I give credit to my coaches for turning a six-rookie squad into a (13th) nationally ranked team. And to all my teammates who work their butts off every single day to accomplish the goal that we set at the beginning of the season: Get back to nationals. We are pumped. We are excited. We are ready to prove what we’re made of.

HT: How has the college basketball experience differed from high school?
Layland: College basketball is much more intense. The games are faster and more physical, and it is louder, more serious and more focused than anything else I’ve ever done. Comparing it to high school, it’s safe to say that everyone is simply bigger. Taller, stronger, bigger.

HT: Was it hard to adapt to a new coaching style?
Layland: It was more adapting to new coaching expectations. It was different, but not difficult. I have a tremendous amount of respect for my coaches and the way they run the women’s basketball program here. I love how seriously it is taken and the fact that my coach has such high expectations for each player only makes us better.

HT: What’s it like balancing sports and a full college schedule?
Layland: Keeping up with classes and homework, surprisingly, isn’t impossible. There are, of course, the super stressful days and weeks when it seems as if getting all my school work done, and going to basketball practice, and going to my work study job are impossible — but it works out. One word that I can best use to describe my college experience thus far is “busy.”

HT: What does your normal schedule look like?
Layland: We usually practice six days a week. Having a day off depends on our game schedule. If there are a lot of games in two weeks, we might not get a break until they’re all over because we simply can’t afford to have an off-day. If we don’t have practice, we usually have a cardio workout and lift weights.

HT: You’ve had ankle problems in the past. How’s the ankle holding up?
Layland: It’s doing well. It’s been more sore and achy than it was my last couple years of high school, but that is definitely due to more use and practices that are harder and faster. I try to get treatment and do rehab a couple times a week to strengthen it.

HT: Was it difficult fitting into a place where you really don’t know anyone?
Layland: Not so much. I have met some great people and have some of the most amazing teammates. They would do anything for each other. It’s so cool and helpful that we’ve become friends in addition to just being teammates.

HT: So, no homesickness at all?
Layland: I have caught myself feeling homesick from time to time, but it’s not too bad when I have so much going on. Staying busy doesn’t allow for much time to think about what I’m missing. I do miss some of the simple things though, like the food at Two Sister’s Bakery and driving myself places. And of course, my family — and my larger-than-dorm-room-sized bed.

Meet-up on the Internet, then take it outside

Tribune Moderator — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:39:50 +0000

• Group allows outdoor enthusiasts to coordinate online

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Valerie DeLaune started up an outdoor group for busy people in the Kachemak Bay area.

A new online group started this month seeks to match people of like interests for organized excursions on hiking trails and other outdoor pursuits.
The site, called the “Homer Outdoor Meet-up Group,” was organized by Valerie DeLaune, who said she started it in order to assist people in finding fellow hikers, skiers, kayakers, mountain climbers, or even those who want less arduous walks, to meet up for activities.
People interested in looking at a calendar of upcoming events can go to www.meetup.com. There, they can sign up to receive notices through their private e-mail, alerting them of opportunities and asking them what their needs are in terms of connecting with others to explore the outdoors. It allows opportunities to carpool, share water taxi expenses to get across Kachemak Bay to park trails, or share gas expenses if members want to offer the services of their boats.
“I wanted to initiate this as a face-to-face community of people of like interests,” DeLaune said. “It’s based on a national meet-up program. Anchorage has 70 of them within 25 miles.”
Homer has three meet-ups listed on the Web site: Eckankar in Homer (a group based on spiritual interests), a Kids in Nature group and now, the Homer Outdoor Group.
Nationally, meet-ups have caught on by offering a wide range of activities from Mom’s Stroller Strides to dance groups — to even a Ron Paul Meet-up Group.
The idea of such Web sites is to find people of like interests. You can sign in with your own profile — not a lot of personal chit-chat, just the basics of name and favorite activities — and then RSVP if interested in an upcoming get-together. Each trip comes with specific details, such as whether this is a trip appropriate for children or a family dog, details on trail conditions and whether there is a limit on how many people may attend.
“I wanted to initiate this to find people who do what I do,” said DeLaune, who established her acupuncture business here last spring, Alaskan Natural Care. She has worked as a naturalist aboard cruise ships and is an avid outdoors person who moved here from Juneau.
DeLaune said another advantage of the site is the time it saves for busy people. You don’t have to call people up or wait for a call to be returned. Interaction on the Web site allows for conversations about whether a ride is needed or available, or other questions and suggestions that arise.
The first meeting of the group will be a snowshoe hike on Feb. 6 at 1 p.m. that will link up at the Homer Reservoir on Skyline Drive.
This group is for all ages who like to get outdoors to hike, ski, snowshoe, ice skate, camp, backpack, kayak and boat. Monthly potlucks will be used to get acquainted, and to offer some kind of presentation such as slide shows of trips, gear information and short classes.
DeLaune said she needs others interested in helping to organize activities so the group can take off.
“I also want to hear from people who want to do a trip they know,” DeLaune said. “Some may be real familiar with a trail across the Bay, or they may want to help organize a more ambitious trip, such as to the Wrangle-Saint Elias.”
The group may also be able to pursue sponsors in exchange for advertising on the Web site. There is a cost for the start-up on the Web site, which for now is sponsored by DeLaune.
For more information, go to www.meetup.com and click on the Homer link.

HOMER TRIBUNE/File Photo - Valerie DeLaune started up an outdoor group for busy people in the Kachemak Bay area.

‘Preach the gospel at all times – and if necessary use words’

Newsroom — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:02:36 +0000

• Homer nurse heads to Africa aboard Mercy ship

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Anna Dickerson was home for Christmas prior to leaving for her training trip to Texas.

God has a plan for Anna Dickerson.
The 1998 Homer High School graduate and pediatric nurse at the Alaska Native Medical Center has no doubt of this, and continues to strive to fulfill her dreams of combining nursing work with mission work.
“The only way I can explain it is that God has this plan for me,” Dickerson said. “I like the personal contact, and when people are sick, there is the potential to make a good impact on them.”
Dickerson will board the ship, “Africa Mercy” in mid-February to begin providing free medical care aboard the “floating hospital.” Professionals from dozens of nations donate their services onboard the ship.
Dickerson said she has always had this seemingly irrational desire to work in an orphanage in Africa.
“I say irrational, because it was like that – ‘in Africa,’” she said. “It was a massive continent I’d never even visited – although I did have a map of it on my wall.
Dickerson said she remembers filling out nursing school applications and reading the question, “What motivated you to become a nurse?”
“I was always thinking, ‘Because I want to work in an orphanage in Africa,’” she explained. “And then, I would wonder how to make myself sound more grown up and responsible.”
Dickerson said the nursing work on the ship is also like a mission, where those onboard follow the ideal of working with the whole person. They strive to treat not only physical needs, but also emotional and spiritual ones.
“I will be sharing the good news – in the manner of St. Francis of Assisi, who once said: ‘Preach the gospel at all times – and if necessary use words,’” Dickerson said. “I will be joyously living out this passion that God has given me.”
According to Dickerson, the ship is a “more controlled environment, with an operating room that has power and supplies available.”
“That’s very important in unstable areas where the power might go out, or it might be hard to get supplies,” she added. “My job will be in the ship’s 78-bed hospital ward. I’ll be providing nursing care for pediatric and adult patients.”

Photo provided - The Africa Mercy is a traveling hospital that makes stops to treat the sick in ports around Africa.

The ship, Africa Mercy, ferried trains in another life, so the large deck offered a giant open area that is now converted to a hospital. The ship is based in West Africa, where health conditions are among the very worst in the world. Less than half of the population have access to healthcare. Dickerson said there are approximately 2 million people for every surgeon, and an estimated one in six women die from childbearing complications.
“Patients are admitted the night before their surgery and then stay as long as they need to recover,” Dickerson wrote on her blog annadickerson.blogspot.com. “The nurses work five, eight-hour shifts weekly, caring for 6-10 patients. I’ll be doing nurse things like changing dressings, giving antibiotics, managing post-op pain, and providing tube feedings, as well as physical therapy, dietary and basic health education.”
Dickerson is still trying to raise money for the trip, and is soliciting donations through a newsletter and on her Web site. The money is need to support her while she works aboard the ship for the next two years.

Lunar event happens ‘once in a blue moon’

Newsroom — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:24:31 +0000

• Phenomenon has nothing to do with color, everything to do with time

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Photo provided - The “blue moon” appears to be blue in certain years due to dense particles. But for the most part, its name designates its unusualness.

While a blue moon consistently gives poets fodder and feeds the imagination of stargazers, its presence is a scientific marker for a rotating earth that by its own clock, ignores the Julian calendar.
And only once in every 20 years, the blue moon appears on New Year’s Eve, as it will this year.
“The moon is out of phase with the days – for it to make its complete cycle it’s about 28 days. It doesn’t coincide with our month, and that’s why it is out of sync with our Julian calendar,” explained retired high school science teacher Bob Hartley “It’s simply the occurrence of two full moons in one month.”
The moon brings with it heightened energy for tides and ushers in new weather patterns. This year’s tide will be minus 4.5 feet, the lowest of the month, at 8:18 a.m. on Dec. 31. High tide that day will be 20.8 feet at 1:37 p.m., though it isn’t the month’s highest tide.
Traditionally, this is a time to go digging for clams – even though it is winter. Among the Alutiiq in Nanwalek, it will be time to gather bidarkis, known as chitons in English and as “u-hee-duks” in Seg’stun.
Nanwalek elder Nick Tanape recalled how any full moon brought its own traditions.
“This will last four or five days long, this low tide. This is a time when we were told to start watching your weather,” Tanape said. “A full moon shows how the weather will be the next 30 days. If it’s nice and clear, no wind, that’s how the month will be. If it’s stormy, it will be stormy.”
Tanape said animals are another harbinger of weather. If they are packing on the fur, it will be cold. If their fur clumps off, people can expect a warming trend.
After the full moon in January, hibernating bears will birth their young. “January is the time when they get their deepest sleep,” Tanape explained, adding that the heightened activity during a full moon might disturb them. They sleep best when it has waned.
Most people tend to notice a little more heightened human activity as well. In Nanwalek, villagers use this holiday to celebrate sobriety, with activities planned that night at the Robert Kvasnikoff Community Center. They invite others from the region to join them, singing karaoke and eating special foods.
“People get lively around a full moon– maybe it’s like drinking a cup of coffee,” Tanape said. “It has something to do with energy; you got gravity and energy pulling at you. Even babies get more lively.”
Folklore gave each moon a name according to its time of year. A moon which came too early had no folk name, and was called a blue moon.
Any full moon has generally had a reputation for causing human havoc, regardless whether it’s blue or not.
Still, Homer Police Chief Mark Robl said he doesn’t see any correlation.
“We don’t have stats that change around the full moon,” Robl said. “But I don’t see that there’s a change in criminal activity.”
And while the expression “once in blue moon” is used metaphorically to describe the rarity of an event, former professional astronomer David Harper of Cambridge, England actually did the math.
“On average, there will be 41 months that have two full moons in every century,” he explained on his Web site. “So, you could say that ‘once in a blue moon’ actually means once every two-and-a-half years.”
And for those who prefer a more exact calculation, Harper did the rest of the math, too: once in a blue moon = 1.16699016 x 10-8 hertz.

Clinton brings ‘The Contract’ to Homer audience

Newsroom — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:54:48 +0000

• Film debuts Dec. 23 at the Homer Theatre

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Clinton Edminster, the new face of cinematography.

A film made in Homer by anyone from the Outside would likely include breath-taking beach scenes, glacier-laden mountains, or the lapping of moody waves on Kachemak Bay shores.
But that isn’t what Clinton Edminster sees.
The young man – raised in Homer – isn’t looking at his community with a tourist’s appreciation. Edminster said he notices things like an unfinished stair constructed in a warehouse, the odd and lonely roadside scene along a narrow segment of East End Road, or how the lights broadcast from the Save U More store.
Elements such as these provide the backdrop for a movie 19-year-old Edminster wrote and filmed in collaboration with several other talented Homer artists. Entitled, “The Contract: An Allegory of Love and Respect,” will debut to the public at 1 p.m. Dec. 23 at the Homer Theatre. Edminster said the short film was shot entirely in Homer, with local actors.
Oceana Wills, Ken Landfield, Ethan Martin, Nikki Ervice and Dan Westerburg lent their thespian talents to the production, while Tom Taffe acted as executive producer. Jake Schmutzler was director of photography, Clara Noomah was the unit production manager and Hunter Multz-Matthews was the producer.
Edminster said he based the project on a script he wrote during some downtime on his dad’s fishing boat. Edminster fished with his dad in False Pass two summers ago aboard their boat, the F/V Restless.
“The script took two years and a lot of help,” Edminster said. “And while things went wrong so many times, if it had been easy, I probably wouldn’t have learned as much.”
Edminster said the plot deals with a botched murder contract that a girl (Wills) puts out on her dad (Westerburg.) In scenes that required blood, Edminster said he and his crew improvised with soy sauce and ketchup.
“That creates an awful smell I hope I never have to experience again,” he said.
Since the film is short – lasting 20 minutes – it won’t be fair to let out too much of the plot. But Homer places selected for many scenes may surprise the audience – and that Ken Landfield makes a really interesting attorney.
Edminster is a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, pursuing a degree in computer animation. He attended Homer schools, and spent his final year of high school at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in the San Bernadino area. He graduated from there in 2009.
Much of the filming for Edminster’s movie was completed in the summertime in Homer, with editing and other work done during the winter months. And with artists working together from various places around the country, some of the work was completed long distance between Edminster, Noomah and Schmutzler using Mac programs and talking online.
Edminster said – at one point – an entire scene was accidently deleted from the computer and needed to be re-shot.
“When that happened, I thought ‘Oh no, I’m not going to be able to finish the film,’” he explained. “But the second filming of it turned out even better.”
Noomah, who spoke from her dorm at Williams College in Massachusetts, said a lot more goes into producing film than what people might think – including some rather detailed logistics during each stage of the process. She and Edminster began making movies after she had roped him into a project while they were in the eighth grade.
“Then he called me out of the blue two years ago and asked if I would like to help him make this movie,” she said. “I made sure the actors had what they needed and made sure they had all the props. I carried a lot of things around in my car, which was pretty much a costume box.”
One of the scenes required filming at Petro Express at 3 a.m. on a Saturday night, which required coordination between all of them and their summer jobs.
“I enjoy working with Jake and Clinton because they have these grand, sweeping visions,” Noomah said. “But, in reality, it takes a lot more work to make those visions happen. I enjoyed being the one to keep it organized.”
Edminster will speak at the beginning of the film to introduce it and answer audience questions.

SVT clinic to receive $2.2 million for improvements

Newsroom — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:52:55 +0000

• Stimulus funding meant to benefit entire community

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
The Seldovia Village Tribe Health Center received an early and fairly unique Christmas present this year. The gift – courtesy of the Obama Administration – included $2.2 million in stimulus funding that SVT plans to use to reconfigure a warehouse alongside the clinic.
The money should create about 24 new construction jobs for Homer, said Sarah Richardson, SVT public relations and marketing person.
“We wanted to offer more holistic health to the community, and needed a space for health education, groups, consultations, physical therapy and administration,” Richardson explained.
The SVT is a community health center that serves a broad spectrum of people. It’s a place to go, regardless of one’s ability to pay, and relies on grants for much of its funding.
“A lot of places applied for this grant. Our team did a good job of putting that grant application together,” Richardson said. “This will be wonderful for the community of Homer, because it opens many new services and gives them a lot more health options.”
The award was part of a $600-million package in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) to support major construction and renovation projects at 85 community health centers nationwide.
In Alaska, only the SVT Clinic and a Wrangell clinic were chosen to receive the help.
The awards are expected to create new job opportunities in construction and healthcare, as well as provide care for more than a half-million additional patients in underserved communities.
“Together, these three initiatives – funding for construction, technology and a medical home demonstration project – won’t just save more money and create more jobs, they’ll give more people the peace of mind of knowing that healthcare will be there for them and their families when they need it,” said President Barack Obama in a press release that came from Sen. Mark Begich’s office. “Ultimately, that’s what health reform is really about.”
Grants of $508.5 million were provided through the Facility Investment Program to address pressing health center facility needs. In addition, as much as $88 million will be available to help improve operational effectiveness and clinical quality by providing management, financial, technology and clinical support services.
To qualify for funding, a health facility must be a federally qualified “community” health center.
The SVT serves the community of Homer on a sliding scale. It is the tribal medical entity for Seldovia, Port Graham and Nanwalek, as well as other Alaska Natives from around the state who live in these communities.

‘Precious’ puppies draw a crowd of admirers

Newsroom — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:09:07 +0000

• Shelter hoping for similar response to influx of cats

By Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune

Within hours of printing last week’s story on the six puppies abandoned in a cramped carrier at a Dumpster, Homer Animal Shelter Director Sherry Bess began e-mailing pictures to the Homer Tribune of people who showed up to take the puppies home.
“The first one to go was the puppy I brought to your office,” Bess said. “The people who adopted him are going to cut out his story from the newspaper and put it in his baby album.”
Bess said another gentleman drove in from Anchorage to pick out one of the puppies.
“He and his wife had been looking for a puppy at other shelters,” Bess she explained. “Then, she said she read your article online through a link in the Anchorage Daily News, and they were really excited about getting one of these puppies.”
By Friday, the last puppy had found a home. But that wasn’t the end of the story as far as Bess was concerned.
“As a result of the story, our ‘most un-adoptable’ dog was adopted,” she said. “He was the dog that no one wanted, even though he is truly a great dog. He just presented himself very badly in a kennel situation.”
Bess said another couple from Anchorage had called about taking one of the abandoned puppies, but then changed their minds.
“The wife had called and wanted one of the puppies, but the husband said ‘no,’” Bess explained. “He wanted ‘a dog that no one else would take.’”
The newest member of their family got neutered Monday and left for Anchorage today to spend the holidays with his brand new family.
Thrilled with the community response to the story of the puppies, Bess said she now hopes to turn her attention to cats.
“The story made a huge difference for the shelter,” she said. “But we have had a big influx of cats recently, and it’s not the fault of the cats. We are desperate to find homes for them since we are loaded.”
If you would like to adopt a pet, call the Homer Animal Shelter at 235-3141, or stop by between the hours of noon and 5 p.m, Tuesday through Saturday.