Daily Sitka Sentinel

December 12, 2017, Community Happenings

Letters to Santa

Editor’s Note: Letters to Santa published in the Sentinel are forwarded to Santa Claus at the North Pole.

Dear Santa: Hello! My name is Elliot! :) ! What I want for Christmas is a perfume lab from MindWare Magazeen. Merry Christmas! P.S. Please make shere that evry kid has a merry Christmas! From: Elliot

Dear Santa: I want a drone and legose. Thake you from Damien.

Dear Santa: Thank you for giving us presents. From Hawlet

Dear Santa: For Christmas I really wanted a telescope so I could look @ stars and planets because sometimes I don’t know if its a star or a planet so please get me a telescope. Jeneva Paz

Dear Santa: I want a trampoline for Christmas. We will leave cookies for you. Love: Ema

Dear Santa: I would like a Laser Rifle to destory all my enimies to ash.

Jericho V.

Dear Santa: I wud like a bike and a tent. From Neilani

Dear Santa: I’ve been a good boy and would like a power tool set, and lots of fish in my net this summer. Thanks, your boy Chevy

Dear Santa: I would love a Plasma Rifle to melt my enimies to goo. Then I can jump in there goo like a rain puddle. Jericho Villanueva

Hours Modified

For Aquarium

The Sitka Sound Science Center aquarium hours for the rest of the year have been modified in observance of the holidays.

Hours will be noon-4 p.m. Dec. 14, 15, 21 and 22; and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Dec. 16 and 23. It will be closed Dec. 24-Jan. 5. Regular Hours Resume Jan. 6.

Advent Concert on

 Historic Sitka Organ

Karen Bretz will play a one-hour concert of seasonal Advent music on the 1844 Kessler organ noon Friday, Dec. 15, and 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, at Sitka Lutheran Church. 

Bretz was organist at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Anchorage.

Advent is the church’s time of preparing for Christ’s birth. The concert will focus on the theme of anticipation and include Advent hymns, such as “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” “People, Look East,” and “In the Bleak Midwinter.”

Bretz also will play characteristic French Christmas pieces and a contemporary setting of the ancient chant “O Come, Emmanuel” by American composer Daniel Pinkham. The variety of the program is intended to demonstrate the timelessness of the Advent season and versatility of the small historic organ.

The Kessler organ was manufactured in Estonia in 1844 and shipped to Sitka in 1846. It is a five-stop tracker organ with a single manual and no pedal board. It is likely the oldest existing pipe organ west of the Mississippi River, the church said. 

All are invited to the free concert.

For more information, contact Bretz at 351-6591 or kbretz@alaska.net.

PEAK Program

Open for Holiday

The PEAK Program will be open  during the winter break, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Dec. 20-22 and Dec. 27-29. 

Ages 5 to 13 engage in a variety of educational lessons that promote STEAM – science, technology, engineering, art and math – activities.  Christmas engineering challenges, STEAM projects, Lego challenges, nerf battles, cooking projects, dance parties, holiday projects, learning how to use hand/power tools and outside games are planned.

Registration paperwork can be emailed or picked up at the PEAK Program, 303 Kimsham Street, lower level location. Cost is $35 per day. 

Call 747-6224 or email – peakprogramsitka@gmail.com for additional information.

DDF Students to

Support Businesses

Groups of Sitka High drama debate and forensics students will be caroling and playing music downtown noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16 to support local businesses.

‘‘Please get out and shop local,’’ the students said.

Gibson Named

Student of Week

Freshman student Veronica Gibson is the Sitka High School Student of the Week.

Veronica enjoyed moving from the middle school into Sitka High and has found her classes to be “challenging, but not overwhelming.” Her favorites are math and her block class, which combines English and U.S. history. 

Veronica plays the piano, works tech for plays at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, and creates art. She was excited to be accepted by the Rotary Club as a Rotary Exchange student for her sophomore year, even though it means being immersed in a culture where she may not speak the language fluently. Her family has hosted eight exchange students, so she says she is ready to be on the traveling side of the equation. 

Veronica’s advice for younger students: “Appreciate your teachers. They work really hard to try to help you learn as much as possible.”

Pot Not Allowed

In National Park

Sitka National Historical Park reminds the public that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration still considers marijuana to be a Schedule 1 drug, even in Alaska and other states where marijuana use has been legalized.

The possession or use of marijuana or any other illicit substance is illegal and prohibited on federal land. Public use of marijuana is still illegal under Alaska state law.

For more information, contact Chief Ranger Sean Brennan at 907-747-0127.