KCAW

Odess Theater typically draws in Sitkans for celebrations big and small, from barn dances to concerts and weddings. Last Friday (5-8-26) is no exception – over 200 Sitkans are packed together for the first ever graduation ceremony for Outer Coast, a two-year liberal arts program honoring its inaugural undergraduate Class of 2026. 

“What this group of students have done, whether they knew what they were getting themselves into or not, was to step into a two-year experiment, which was and remains absolutely and unequivocally impossible to predict or optimize,” says Caroline Daws, the Chair of Environmental Science at Outer Coast. She stands behind a podium in her academic regalia, addressing the crowd. 

“This group of students in particular, in a way that no class that came before or will come after, stepped into the unknown here and have had the grace to live in uncertainty, in the real every day, in between messy moments,” says Daws, through tears. “Our relationships are forged in moments of conflict, monotony, joy and grief. Each of them has shaped the whole. Our spirits and lives are interwoven.”

The 13 graduates, who hail from across the United States and even Canada, sit in the front row, beaming up at their beloved professor. Their graduation garb is customized to reflect their individual cultures, with regalia vests, kilts, and kimonos peeking through their black graduation robes; yet all are connected with their white Outer Coast stoles. 

The two-year undergraduate program’s home is on the historic Sheldon Jackson Campus, which was from 1878 to 1967 home to a Presbyterian mission school that worked to erase Indigenous cultures and language in Sitka. With that history in mind, Outer Coast was founded in 2015 with the goal of creating a college model that centers Indigenous histories and knowledge alongside Western academia. And this goal was reflected throughout the graduation ceremony, from students and “staffulty” performing various Tlingít songs and dances throughout, to speaking the Lingít that they learned throughout their time at Outer Coast. 

Sitting among the staffulty on stage is elder L’eiwtú Éesh Herman Davis, the clan leader of the L’uknax.adí Coho People. After the graduation ceremony concluded, the class of 2026 gathered around him to hear his gratitude for their efforts to learn the language. 

“Just when it was the sound of the Tlingít language was going away from us. But now all your students and all the teachers that [are] bringing it back to us. It’s time to come back [to] our language,” says Davis. “Our language is coming back. It’s getting louder and louder and louder.” 

As she put together her graduation outfit, Cathy Li knew she wanted to represent the communities that have been most impactful for her. She wears a cap made out of the Daily Sitka Sentinel newspaper, where she worked as a reporter while attending Outer Coast. The hat is adorned with freshly-picked dandelions and bits of paper curled up to look like fiddleheads, a nod to the various musical groups she joined in Sitka as a violinist. During the reception break, Li takes pictures with community members she befriended during her time in Sitka. She says she has been deeply touched by their support, and has worked to thank them in the best way she knows how. 

“I’ve been using baked goods as my method of gratitude. So far, I made a crepe cake and I divvied up every single part of it as a vessel of gratitude,” says Li. “I feel so honored that they came out to support me, and I have no idea what I did or how I earned their willingness to befriend me. I feel really grateful.”

As many members of the Class of 2026 prepare to transfer to other colleges and universities across the country, Outer Coast’s Executive Director and Co-Founder, Bryden Sweeney-Taylor, hopes that students hold on to the intrepidness and sense of humor that helped them navigate the rough patches and uncertainties as the school’s first ever class. 

“[The students are] going to go on to lots of places where failure is really something to be avoided at all costs. And I think here at Outer Coast, we are encouraging students to embrace failure, to try things and see if they work and if they don’t, then to pick themselves back up and dust themselves off and go at it again,” says Sweeney-Taylor. “And that is really something that I hope that they carry with them into the rest of their lives, the rest of their educations, and where that will take them.” 

The ceremony concludes with the staffulty performing an original Tlingít song in response to the graduates’ earlier song and dance performance. The graduates and other attendees stand up and dance along, smiling as they bounce their upward-turned hands. As the Class of 2026 prepares to enter the unknown once again, many feel that Outer Coast and Sitka have given them the tools they need to make anywhere they go feel like home.

This summer, Southeast Alaska Independent Living (SAIL) will host several outdoor camps for youth and adults, from kayaking and adventure camps, to first aid and babysitting camp. Sitka program director Joel Hanson joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss this summer’s opportunities. Listen here:

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This Friday (5-15-26), representatives from Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and Wayfinder Wealth will be presenting on Social Security, Medicare, and retirement at the Sitka Public Library at 11 a.m. Susan Briles, patient health benefits manager with SEARHC, joined KCAW on the Morning Interview to explain the different parts of Medicare, how to decide when to start collecting Social Security retirement benefits, and what to expect at the upcoming event. Listen to the conversation here:

A handful of kids from the Sitka Spruce Tips 4-H rifle club gather at the local Sportsman Association on Friday night to review the safety tips they learned at their first meeting a week ago. Things like:

“Never keep your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot. Always keep the gun at a safe position. Never point [it at] anybody, because that’s gonna be bad. You need to have your safety on if you’re not shooting. And remember that when you shoot your bullet, there’s no way you can get that back,” recounted two of the rifle club’s youngest members, 9-year-old Andy and 8-year-old Izzy.

Sitka’s youth rifle club has been dormant for several years after the previous instructor stepped down in 2022. But this year, Andy and Izzy’s dad, Pedro Diaz, revived the program. 

A specialist from Kodiak flew down in February to train five local volunteers to teach marksmanship, safety, and responsibility with firearms. The volunteers and kids all came into the program with varying degrees of shooting experience. Some had never touched a gun before joining. Others, like Andy and Izzy, have their own rifles at home, and they say they came into the club already knowing how to clean their guns and how to aim.

“But we still need to learn a little bit. We haven’t learned all it, just a little bit,” Andy said.

He says their dad, Pedro, hunts and wants to teach everyone how to shoot safely. 

“What if you want to go shooting or hunting, or it’s just like a hobby, you need to learn how to hold it, how to shoot it, and all [that] stuff,” Andy said. “And there’s rules to it.” 

Pedro says the desire to run the club came to him last year during the Sportsman Association’s annual turkey shoot, where Andy won a turkey, but Izzy didn’t. 

“That ignited some kind of flame in her to want to get a turkey next year,” he said.

So Pedro relaunched the rifle program to instill confidence, safety, and skill in not only his own kids, but about 17 others participating in this year’s program.  

“You can see the kids that have obviously been grown into this sport, and you can also see their interest and eagerness to pursue it further,” he said. “And it’s really cool seeing the kids that are first nervous or afraid of going into the firing range. Once they pull that trigger for the first time, you see this glow in their faces like, ‘Did I just do that?’ And next thing you know, they just want to fire off more rounds and get better at it.” 

Carrie Sipple is a parent of an 11-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy in the club. She and her family moved to Sitka from Anchorage last year. 

Sipple says guns are nowhere near her family’s comfort zone. But because of the prevalence of firearms on the island — from people hunting, subsisting, or just shooting for sport — she wants her kids to feel confident and prepared to encounter them. 

“You don’t want to be casual with your introduction,” she said. “You don’t want to get your introduction to the rifle from the kid down the street who also didn’t get a good introduction, right? So this kind of structure, this kind of deliberate approach, I think it’s kind of necessity at this point. What they decide to do with it is up to them, right? I’m not going to make them ever use it again, but I think this is a really great starting point for living here.”

4-H rifle coach Raven Waltemyer agrees. They came to Sitka from the Lower 48 last year as an Americorps artist fellow. 

“I think that learning [rifle safety] from an early age is honestly best practice,” they said. “When I was in outdoor education as a garden educator, we say that even getting infants and preschoolers exposed to dirt and nature as soon as possible makes them less scared of nature later on. And when they’re less scared of nature later on, they’re more encouraged to take risks and to feel more confident and independent in their actions. And so it’s not just that they’re learning the skill of shooting the rifle, but they’re learning the other skills that come with learning the rifle.”

Although there are still many weeks to go in the 4-H rifle program, Pedro says the confidence and skills the students are already picking up is impressive, and he’s one proud coach and dad. And when asked if Izzy’s going to win a turkey this year:

“She’s gonna totally win a turkey,” he said.

And Izzy agrees that she has a shot. But she says if she doesn’t get one, that’s okay, because she can always try again. 

For the past few years, engineers, electricity, and sustainability experts have been developing Sitka’s Community Renewable Energy Strategy after determining key values from the community. The City & Borough of Sitka’s Sustainability Coordinator Bri Gabel joins KCAW for the Morning Interview to share more about a collaborative planning workshop this upcoming Monday (5-11-26) where Sitkans can provide public comment before they begin the strategy development process.

Two Sitka School Board members are stepping down. When the board met on Wednesday (5-6-26), it accepted the formal resignations of Tom Williams and Amanda Williams.

Tom Williams was appointed to a vacant school board seat in 2023, and ran for a full term unopposed later that year. Amanda Williams, who is Tom Williams   ’ daughter-in-law, is a former science teacher who lost her job when the board cut over a dozen teaching positions in 2024. She ran for her seat later that year. At a school board meeting on May 6, both tendered their resignations.

Tom Williams said while they disagreed at times, he looked back on his time with the board fondly.

“Even though, when I look back, we had some spirited conversations in executive session, and at the table, and at conferences, it was all very professional,” Williams said. “I know I learned from some of the discussions and the dissents.”

“I’ve worked on a lot of boards, and I think that this board worked together better than any board that I’ve been on,” Williams continued. “Not necessarily as productive, but I think we had really good chemistry. So I appreciate my time and the opportunity.”

Amanda Williams did not make a statement at the meeting. In her formal resignation letter, she said she was grateful for the opportunity to serve on the board, but it was time to move on. “I have appreciated working together with the board members to tackle some of the challenges the district has faced throughout this term,” she said.

The board took a pensive moment to thank both of them for their service before accepting their resignations. Board president Phil Burdick told Tom Williams it was a pleasure working with him, and that he’d learned a lot from him about governance and efficiency. Board member Courtney Amundson complimented Amanda Williams’ effective, even-keeled approach to board discussion. Board member Paul Rioux said he’d worked with her on the policy committee, where she had great ideas and “really showed up for it.”

“Sometimes it’s hard doing that stuff to, like, see the long term value. It feels like it’s just words on a piece of paper and not like that reality. And I feel like you did a good job of bringing it back to like, ‘Well, what does this really mean in the classroom or in the school?” Rioux said. “For Tom, you know, I really appreciate that you’re always willing to ask the tough question, and and that we’ve been able to move, you know, win, lose or draw…move forward and tackle the next thing, and I really appreciate your willingness, and setting the example to do that.”

The board must now fill the two vacant seats from June until the municipal election on October 6. Burdick encouraged Sitkans to apply, pointing to the relatively lower workload the board typically undertakes in the summer months.  

“There’s no meeting in July. The August meeting is really light. The September meeting is pretty light, and then the October meeting, and you’re done,” Burdick said. “If you want to just have a taste of what it’s like to be on a school board, now’s your chance.”

Any Sitkan interested in filling one of the board vacancies must submit a letter of interest to the Sitka School District office by June 22 at 4 p.m. At a special school board meeting on June 30, the applicants will be interviewed and then two will be appointed to the board by majority vote. 

The Alaska Health Project South Sudan aims to improve healthcare in the remote, underserved region of Fangak, South Sudan. Led by Dr. Jack Hickel, the organization has installed over 120 water wells, established over 1,200 small family farms to fight food insecurity, and built two health centers in the region. Hickel and board members Debbie Miller and Robb Kulin joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the project ahead of Hickel’s presentation at the Sitka Public Library, tonight at 6:30 p.m. Listen to the conversation here:

Five hours before prom starts, the common room of the Mt. Edgecumbe High School girl’s dorm is filled with the smell of hairspray and roses, and sounds of girls chatting, hairdryers buzzing, and music playing from a speaker in the center of the room.

Like many high schools around the country, Mt. Edgecumbe throws a prom for its students shortly before graduation. But the state-run boarding school in Sitka has a unique program to help out its many students from villages across Alaska: the Prom Prince and Princess program.

For the past 14 or so years, Alaska Airlines employees — known as “glam faeries” in this instance — fly to town to help the teens get ready for their big night. They do hair, nails, and makeup, provide jewelry, shoes, corsages and boutonnieres, and even do alterations on the many donated suits and dresses. 

“I love doing hair and makeup,” says Lisa Lynch, one of the many volunteers helping in the crowded room. “I have a full face of makeup and a tiara on, even though I’m not going to prom, I thought it’d be fun, and I’m curling hair right now. I was doing some makeup and I was also playing music. So a very important job.”

Lynch’s mom, also doing hair nearby, is an Alaska Airlines employee, and Lynch decided to tag along. She remembers her own prom, getting ready at home in Anchorage with her mom, cousins and friends nearby. 

“That was really important to me, because I enjoy that part of hanging out with my friends [and] doing each other’s hair and makeup, my mom helping and making dinner and everything for us. So I’m happy to be able to do this for other kids whose families can’t be here to help them like that.”

Alonza Topcock just finished her turn in the makeup chair. She’s a senior from Teller, Alaska. She says her prom look is inspired by the 2001 Mariah Carey cult classic “Glitter.”

“I wanted shimmer and I wanted glitter, and that’s exactly what they gave me,” she says. “You can show them inspo pics, and they’ll do their best to recreate it. I’m planning on getting my hair curled and maybe a half up, half down [hairdo]. And then they’re also going to help me with some body glitter.”

Topkok is going to wear a beaded black and gold strapless gown with high heels speckled with metal and flowers. She says she’s going “all out” for her final prom.

“Well, it’s senior year. You kind of have to,” she says.

It means a lot to Topkok that people volunteer their time and donate clothes, makeup, and jewelry when she and her friends don’t have their family members nearby to help out. 

“I would have had my mom do my hair, like she’s [done] for every other dance, and I know she would have loved to be here to do it,” she says. “But these ladies are so amazing, and it’s very meaningful that they took their time to do this.”

The Mt. Edgecumbe High School prom is open to all class years. Angelina John is a freshman from Kwigillingok. She says she’s excited for her first prom before she heads home for the summer. 

“We call our hometown ‘Kwig’ and I go there for summer, for berry picking, fishing, and preparing for the winter,” she says.

John is wearing her hair half up and half down, with a natural makeup look. Her dark burgundy nails with flowers and wave designs are painted to match her floor-length strapless purple gown.

“Getting ready and putting on a dress, it feels like a birthday party, but like it’s not your birthday,” she says.

But John isn’t the only one excited — and maybe slightly nervous — to get glammed up for prom. 

Freshman Andrew Adams, from Mentasta Lake, is hovering at the entrance to the common room with his friends Calvin Jennings and Kacin Byayuk. They’re hoping to get their eyebrows trimmed, and maybe some haircuts, before they suit up for the dance, but they say they’re slightly intimidated to walk into the room full of girls getting glammed up. 

Adams went to a middle school prom a couple of years ago, but this is his first high school prom. He says he asked two girls to dance at the eighth grade dance and he plans to continue with that tradition.

Despite some nerves, Adams and his friends eventually ask one of the volunteers to help them get ready. Refreshed and ready to head out, they say they’re feeling handsome and ready for the night to come.

Two of the Ocean Wave Quilters Guild’s annual events shall be making their return in the upcoming weeks: their 44th annual quilt show (open from 5/8 – 5/17) and Mother’s Day tea party (5/10). Megan Pasternak and Janine Holzman join KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the history of both events and what attendees can expect, as well as some of their favorite quilts in the upcoming show.

Pacific High School’s garden sale is coming up this week. Students will be selling more than 2,000 plants, including herbs, flowers, and vegetables. Ty Waldron, a student from the combined English and gardening class, and Andrea Fraga, school garden coordinator, joined KCAW on the Morning Interview to discuss how this year’s event is a bit different from years past. Listen to their conversation here: