A full house at the Nolan Center listened as the chamber of commerce honored Mia Wiederspohn as Wrangell’s youth leader of the year, Barbara Neyman as educator of the year, and Sarah Merritt as citizen of the year.
The chamber presentation described Merritt, who has worked at the legislative information office in town since 1996, as “an outstanding citizen … understated, kind, solution focused, and devoted to the democratic process.”
Merritt said she returned to Juneau after earning a degree in political science in South Dakota, later deciding she did not want to be a politician or a lawyer. Going to work at the legislative information office, which helps people with all aspects of managing and understanding state services and the legislative process, “was right up my alley,” she said in an interview the week after the chamber’s April 9 awards dinner.
“That’s the way I was raised,” to help people, she explained.
Merritt will be leaving Wrangell this week — but only temporarily. She will lead a contingent of six high school students in the Close Up program, accompanying them to Washington, D.C., to watch and learn about the federal government. She’s been doing it for years, though there was no Close Up travel the past two years, due to the pandemic.
Her work at the high school has been ongoing since last fall, when she led a civics class, trying to teach her students to be more open-minded. The chamber described Merritt as “positive and encouraging” of the role teens will play in shaping the future.
Helping students was the focus of another chamber award — educator of the year — which went to Barbara Neyman.
“She has gone above and beyond in so many ways,” parents Eric and Laurie Hagelman said in a prepared statement presented by the chamber. They described Neyman as their daughter’s “main teacher through the special education department.”
“She always stays late to work with her and has run the ‘night school’ program for years,” the Hagelmans said. “She is the reason that so many kids graduate and stick with high school. We know our daughter wouldn’t have been able to do high school without her.”
They said their daughter also thought Neyman deserved the award. “She says that she is very thoughtful and open-minded.”
Bob Davis, assistant principal at the high school and middle school, concurred that Neyman’s award-winning commitment is a big part of her strong effort to help students throughout the school district. “Barb's official title is special education secretary, but her real value is how much and how well she works with kids,” he said last weekend.
The chamber’s annual awards also included young leader of the year, which went to Wiederspohn, who has been working with Tlingit language teacher Virginia Oliver to learn and record words and phrases for broadcast on KSTK.
“I was surprised but I am very thankful,” Wiederspohn, a junior, said in an interview the week after the awards ceremony. “The community has been really cherishing of what I’ve been doing.”
“Mia should be recognized for her dedication to keeping the Lingit language alive,” the chamber said.
Wiederspohn credits Oliver for pushing her to learn more of the language and to share it with others in the radio recordings. The language is dying, she said, and she hopes her radio work can help prevent that from happening.
She also is active in student government, writing grants for school projects, and volunteering with BASE (Building a Supportive Environment), a student-led group dedicated to improving the school and students’ lives.
The chamber awarded the Wrangell Sentinel with business of the year honors.
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