Keaton Gadd sought out a high perch for the photo, so he sat atop a refrigerator at the high school on Feb. 19. For his senior project, Gadd is collaborating with the Senior Center to paint a new sign and hand out meals. He will be on the basketball court in Ketchikan on Wednesday when the boys team tips off against Haines in the first round of the Southeast tournament.
Keaton Gadd knows who he is. He knows what he likes, he knows what he doesn't. He knows what motivates him and he knows what scares him (planes).
Gadd is direct. He speaks in short, swift sentences - not due to a limited vocabulary, but because of an involuntary compulsion for his speech to match his thinking: undeviating and without waste.
"I like being pretty straightforward, just doing what it takes," he said. "No extra steps."
For his senior project, Gadd is doing something that matches that pragmatic mindset. Wrangell's Senior Center needs a new sign, so Gadd is making them one - a white and blue wooden sign, to be specific.
And when someone said to him, "It's unfortunate you don't have your food handler's card, otherwise you could go help (hand out meals)," Gadd pointed out that he, in fact, does hold a food handler's card.
Now he spends one day a week handing out meals at the Senior Center.
The project ticks off several boxes for Gadd. The task is not just practical, but it allows him to work with his hands. This is something he likes, something he wants to pursue after graduation.
"I just like working with my hands," he said. "I couldn't see myself just sitting on a computer. That's not my thing."
Gadd has thought a lot about his future. Unlike airplanes, it isn't something to be afraid of. The next stop for him is trade school. He plans on studying heating, ventilation, air conditioning and plumbing at both the Alaska Vocational Technical Center in Seward and Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon.
After that, he's got a few ideas about where to go next.
"Texas sounds cool," he said. "I like cowboys. I can't put my finger on it, but it sounds like where I belong."
While many of his classmates appear hellbent on getting as far from Wrangell as possible, Gadd looks forward to the prospect of raising kids here - but not before some time away, of course.
"If I were to have kids, I'd come back here, but I think for a while – probably not," he said. "It seems like I could send them off and they would be OK to walk to the playground. I did it here and it turned out fine."
But until then, Gadd is keeping his head down and doing what needs to be done every day. He has cemented himself into the rotation on the basketball court, and head coach Cody Angerman doesn't shy away from sharing why.
Angerman called him "an example to the other guys," and elaborated further, adding, "Keaton is going out there and doing his job. If anybody wants to know how to play that position in this press, watch him."
Part of the reason for his on-the-court success is his obvious coachability, something Gadd tries to embody beyond basketball. It's this same mindset he applied to his job last summer, working as a prep cook at the Marine Bar: Ask questions, take it all in, do your job.
"When my coach or my boss tells me stuff, they know what they're talking about," he said. "So, you really just try to soak in the knowledge that they're trying to tell you."
Gadd learned a lot working in the kitchen. He learned how to line up tickets on the grill station so that everyone gets their food at the same time, something he said is made further difficult when everyone wants their food cooked a different way. He's learned that chicken fry orders clog up the entire fry station for 15 minutes. But he's also learned something else; he's learned to give some grace to the service industry.
"Appreciate the food industry," he said. "People always complain about time and service but there's a lot going on back there."
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