Bonjour ! Or, in English, hello! Sitting in my garden, during this quarantine due to Covid-19, I took time to look back over my life and especially to think about all the travels I did and the exchange student experience I had when I was 18. First of all, let me introduce myself: I am Sophie, born on the 22 … Read More
Pay It Forward: Graceful Aging
They were teenagers when they walked through Ellis Island into a new life. She with her sewing machine and he with his masonry tools. They emigrated from Norway after WWI. Their parents believed each would have a better life in the United States. Both of them boarded a train headed west to the Dakotas where other Norwegians had settled. Many … Read More
Pay It Forward: Charity doesn’t always have to be so conventional
Written by Dina Al-Shibeeb In a fast-paced world, one’s goals, needs and responsibility to pay bills take a central theme and charity somehow takes a backseat at least for some of us. Sometimes we remember how we need to be more charitable when Christmas is around the corner. This is something I have noticed as a journalist working for the … Read More
Pay It Forward – Storyknife Edition
Sometimes a dream starts thirty years in the past. In 1989, Dana Stabenow was sending out her first novel to publishers in New York City. Back then, the process was pretty arduous and disheartening, all done by “snail mail” and the wait for acceptance (or rejection) was long. So, when Dana’s friend Katherine Gottlieb saw an article about Hedgebrook, a … Read More
Being Community Means Being ‘Like Lizzie’
Lizzy was a common prairie woman, daughter of Norwegian parents who immigrated with little to their name except knowledge of a small farm where they had lived in the fjords of Norway. She knew how to raise chickens. She grew a garden of flourishing vegetables. She was a superior cook of ordinary food, home baked bread, soups, fried chicken, and … Read More
Pay It Forward July 2019
Last week, Governor Dunleavy abruptly vetoed all of the state legislature’s approved funding for the arts and culture in Alaska, cut the University of Alaska by 40% and slashed Health and Human Services, destabilizing our most vulnerable–children and elderly. If state legislators are unable to override the Governor’s veto with a 3/4 vote in a special session that begins on … Read More
Pay It Forward, June 2019
The Mariner Mat room has changed in 20 years. When I started wrestling, girls on the mat were few and far between. In middle school, the School Board said I wasn’t allowed to wrestle. Only when I challenged them with Title IX did they allow me on the mat. I felt lucky to have the chance to wrestle and I … Read More
Pay It Forward, May 2019
Pulling together in tough budget times by Bonnie Jason and Tom Kizzia, Homer Foundation trustees With anxiety rising these days about future state and municipal budgets, we all wonder how much our community will be thrown back on its own resources. This seems like an important time to let our neighbors know that the Homer Foundation has been busy making … Read More
Pay It Forward: April 2019
Submitted by Billy Day I often prefer to tackle jobs during the winter months. The snow pack can be much easier to travel upon than the veggie covered terrain one encounters during other seasons. Today I made a new friend while on the job. I drove to the end of the road and found a trooper vehicle parked in the … Read More
Pay It Forward: A Christmas Homecoming
During her busy and too-brief life, my wife helped in many non-profit organizations. I never did. As a working journalist, I kept my distance from good causes. Clear-thinking journalism (always of value, always in short supply) was my way of pitching in. When I left full-time newspaper work, and agreed to start helping the Homer Foundation, it was not the … Read More