The Wrangell Cooperative Association held an award ceremony at Wrangell High School Monday evening, Sept. 30. Tribal Administrator
Esther Ashton, along with several members of the WCA board, organized the ceremony to officially give several local organizations a check from the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium's "Healthy Is Here" grant. In total, $10,600 was given to 17 organizations.
"The reason we're here today is that we received from SEARHC a Healthy Is Here grant," Ashton said. "What they were doing is they were giving the different tribes in Southeast funding to help promote health in their communities."
The Wrangell Fire Department received two $500 checks during the ceremony. One was for training the department's search and rescue dogs. The other was to purchase CPR training dolls.
"Every year we go to what is called CSAR, which is Canine Search and Recovery," said Lorne Cook, who accepted one of the checks. "So what we do there is they have a lot of different training such as man-trailing, wilderness air scent, all the way up to human remains detection."
Sports was another area that saw a lot of donations, with six local teams receiving money. The Wrangell Lady Wolves basketball team received $500, while the girl's AAU basketball team also received $500. The boys' club basketball team also received $500. The Wrangell Swim Club and high school swim team both received $500, as well. The Wrangell Softball Club, recently restarted last season, was also given $500.
The Wrangell Mariner's Memorial was another recipient of funding. Memorial Board President Jenn
Miller-Yancey was present to accept a $1,000 check which will go toward aiding
in the construction of a memorial for Wrangell mariners lost at sea. Miller-Yancey mentioned at the ceremony that this money will be doubled, thanks to a matching grant with the Rasmuson Foundation.
"It's important to the Tlingit culture to keep everybody in mind, regardless of where they are in the world and alive today," said WCA Board President John Martin. "So that's a part of what provides us with a place to visit those we've lost, and it's a good program."
Other recipients of grant money include: $1,000 to the Wrangell parks and recreation department, $1,000 to Bearfest, $1,000 to the Wrangell Senior Center, $1,000 to the E.A.T.S. Garden, $500 to Community Roots, $500 to Irene Ingle Public Library, $500 to radio station KSTK, and $100 to the Wrangell High School Queer Straight Alliance.
"It's a wonderful and rare opportunity to hand out money, and it's very nice of SEARHC to provide this grant," said Martin.
Reader Comments(0)