DIVE PRACTICUM – Dive student Karson Winslow hands a discarded garden hose to SCUBA instructor Haleigh Damron, standing on the dock, at Crescent Harbor this afternoon. The University of Alaska Southeast Sitka Campus Dive Team is clearing trash from the harbor floor under floats 5, 6 and 7 as part of their instruction. Fourteen student divers are taking part this year. This is the fifth year the dive team has volunteered to clean up Sitka harbors. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Sentinel Staff Writer
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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.
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20 YEARS AGO
April 2004
Photo caption: Sitka High students in the guitar music class gather in the hall before the school’s spring concert. The concert was dedicated to music instructor Brad Howey, who taught more than 1,000 Sitka High students from 1993 to 2004. From left are Kristina Bidwell, Rachel Ulrich, Mitch Rusk, Nicholas Mitchell, Eris Weis and Joey Metz.
50 YEARS AGO
April 1974
The Fair Deal Association of Sealaska shareholders selected Nelson Frank as their candidate for the Sealaska Board of Directors at the ANB Hall Thursday.