BRAVE co-founder receives community service award from statewide group

The Alaska Children's Trust, a statewide nonprofit that works to prevent child abuse and neglect and advocate for children, youth and families, honored Wrangell resident Kay Larson with its Champion for Kids Award Saturday evening, Sept. 28, at the Nolan Center.

Kaila Pfister, the trust's director of community engagement, who has worked with Larson the past four years, talked about the need for positive role models in the lives of children and how the award honors the contributions of such Alaskans at their job, volunteer work or community activities.

"She has just been doing this work the whole time that I've been there and I'm sure much, much longer," she said of Larson. "This award is a way to recognize people who don't really get recognized for this work."

In addition to Larson, Pfister said four other Alaskans were similarly honored this year from Bethel, Fairbanks, Soldotna and the Matanuska Valley.

Two days before the Wrangell event, Larson admitted to feeling unworthy of such praise. "I've had to grow into the feeling of acceptance, realizing that we need to recognize each other's accomplishments, not as a sense of pride and egotism, but for the contributions that are being made to make a better world," she said. "It's helped me realize that I need to show appreciation and gratitude more thoroughly, more often to those around me."

Approximately eight years ago, Larson co-founded BRAVE (Building Respect and Valuing Everyone), a Wrangell nonprofit. Since then, the organization has strived to promote healthy relationships through prevention programs, resource referrals and community engagement including the Resilience Fair, an annual event that brings together organizations to help families discover available resources.

Formerly with the trust, one-time Wrangell resident and BRAVE chair Maleah Nore, a tribal public health contractor currently in graduate school in Portland, nominated Larson for the honor. Unable to attend the event in person, Nore joined in the festivities via Zoom and recalled how Larson first approached her seven years ago about becoming a part of BRAVE.

"I was 19 years old, freshly graduated from high school. I was a survivor of childhood abuse and I was really angry," Nore said in her Zoom presentation. "When Kay approached me about this little group she was working on, it was like a lifeline for me. Here was someone who maybe also didn't know what they were doing, but who had the same passion and also had the years and the patience and the vision to make something good happen."

In a phone interview Sept. 26, Nore remembered how someone from the children's trust reached out to her to ask about Larson as a potential award nominee. "The second that they said that, I was thinking about all the work that she's done over the years," she said. "I don't know anyone who would be more deserving than her."

Describing Larson as "a kind, patient, empathetic person," Nore recalled how the honoree initially tried to downplay her impending tribute at a meeting after getting word from the trust.

"She was like, 'Oh, I got this little award recognizing me for the work that I do with BRAVE, and I was like, 'Little award!'" Nore recalled with a laugh. "'You got a huge award! They're going to have a gala! And it's not just for your work with BRAVE, it's for your work on all kinds of things.' ... She's not used to taking so much credit."

For over 50 years, at home and abroad in places like the Caribbean, Russia and China, Larson, who is of the Baha'i Faith, said her priority has been children's "spiritual education," and she has labored to help them improve the virtues within them, such as compassion, friendliness, cooperation and trustworthiness. "We just need to recognize them and learn how to polish them," she said.

"They're like gems that are already there."