Lutheran church celebrates 17th Alaska Day Luncheon

Island of Faith Lutheran Church opened its doors to Wrangell's elderly for a celebration of their 17th annual Alaska Day Senior Luncheon. Gayle Gross, with the church, said that the luncheon was originally started almost 20 years ago, to ensure that senior citizens in Wrangell would be provided a meal when most places on the island closed for the holiday. Today it is a fun event for people to come together to enjoy good food, music, and each other's company.

Another tradition of the senior luncheon is to have music performed by children from Evergreen Elementary School. This year's performance was by Jennifer Miller's third grade class, who sang "Alaska's Flag" and "The Wrangell Song."

"They're the best part of it, when they sing," said Gross.

There was also a special guest at the luncheon this year, Corree Delabrue with the Forest Service. Delabrue was invited to speak to attendees about "citizen science" and several projects going on around Wrangell that people could be a part of. Citizen science is the collection of data by regular people and amateur scientists, typically to help provide information for research into the natural world. Delabrue pointed to the annual bird census that occurs around Christmas time as an example of citizen science. Regular people can help with the census by counting the number of birds they see, which can help scientists track bird populations over time.

"The first year was in 1900, there were 27 people that participated in the U.S. and Canada. Now, in recent years, we've had over 70,000 in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, and Latin America participate to see who can count the most birds around the holidays," said Delabrue.

Island of Faith Lutheran Church is located at 211 2nd Street, near the public library. They can be reached at (907) 874-2743.