The Wrangell Cooperative Association, alongside the borough, invite community members to come together at the Nolan Center for a one-year remembrance of last November’s deadly landslide.
The event is set for 6 p.m. on the slide’s anniversary, Nov. 20. Tribal Administrator Esther Aaltséen Reese said both the tribe and the borough want the structure of the event to be flexible in order to best meet people’s needs.
There will be speeches to open the remembrance, but Reese said they are going to try and keep that portion of the evening short so that community members can come together and spend the time supporting one another instead.
“Every person in this community was just there and helping and involved,” Reese said of Wrangell’s response to the 2023 slide. “It will be a time for us to come together, commemorate the ones we lost, and acknowledge the resilience of our community.”
She also mentioned that WCA is trying to bring some main dishes to the potluck to further ease the burden of mourners at the event.
The landslide at 11.2-Mile Zimovia Highway occurred on the night of Nov. 20. It started at around the 1,500-foot elevation before roaring down the mountainside and across the highway. The slide destroyed two homes and claimed the lives of Otto Florschutz and the entire Heller family: parents Tim and Beth and children Kara, Mara and Derek.
WCA is planning several events and offerings around the one-year mark of the slide. Reese also wants to bring back emotional support dogs in the classrooms during the same week.
There will also be a social-emotional learning day at Evergreen Elementary School on Nov. 20. As a part of that programming, a team of therapists will be made available to all Wrangell students during the week of Nov. 20-22, as well as throughout the following week.
Reese also made sure to tie in Team Hollywood’s second visit to Wrangell with the anniversary of the landslide. Team Hollywood describes itself as a national organization “dedicated to bringing basketball, resources, and entertainment to rural Alaska communities.”
Team Hollywood, alongside retired NBA champion Chucky Brown, will be in town on Nov. 11 to offer programming, entertainment, and even host a three-on-three tournament for students. Reese hopes their visit can help boost students’ spirits as the landslide anniversary approaches.
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