Juneau Igloos No. 6 Presidents Report was submitted to the Grand Igloo by Juneau Men's President Brad Austin and Juneau Women's President Dorene Lorenz at the 2023 Grand Convention in Seward. Grand Igloo Secretary Dawn Campbell accepts the report in the spirit it was given.
Princess Sophia Memorial
Fred Thorsteinson and Tom Dawson inspect the interpretative signage for the Princess Sophia Memorial.
The Princess Sophia memorial was moved over two different dates. The rock w/plaque was moved on June 17th, and the informative sign was moved on June 28th due to it being threatened by the moving river.
Little Sister of Liberty Update
Dorene channels her best Vanna White to draw attention to the Little Sister at last year's convention in Juneau. Brad kept his hands in his pockets.
After presenting the statue restored by men’s igloo president Brad Austin at last years convention to Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon, the Little Sister of Liberty statue was moved to Juneau City Hall where it is safely residing in the city managers office.
We are still researching the 20 years of missing history and hope to find a suitable display location in Juneau for all to enjoy. At the end of the 2022 Grand Igloo Convention the Little Sister of Liberty was inducted as an honorary member of the Juneau Women's Igloo.
Mindy Bugayong, Karen Bonnett-Peterson, Little Sister of Liberty, Palmer Igloo Member Beth Gambel, Dorene Lorenz and Irene Gallion at the Grand Ball of the 2022 Grand Igloo Convention in Juneau.
Movie night - The Flying Saucer
The Flying Saucer was a black and white action thriller made in 1950, filmed in Juneau and up the Taku River. It was written by Howard Irving Young, from an original story by Mikel Conrad, who also produced, directed, and stars with Pat Garrison and Hantz von Teuffen.
We had a great turn out and plan to continue Alaska film movie nights. Brad Austin chairs the Movie Night Committee.
Empowered Sunshine Committee
89-years-young Dee Brenner flashes a 100-watt smile.
Past President Dee Brenner revitalized our Sunshine Committee with a directive to contact all of our missing members, check in on them, and see how we can serve them.
The committee is charged with making sure we don’t lose track of our members and they don’t lose track of us.
Extra tender loving care is being extended to those who are no longer able to make our meetings, so they know they still have company on the trail and have not been left behind.
Rebranding
We have been getting organized in a rebranding effort that is evident in everything from a great big check that we use to give out scholarships to little forget-me-not tea cup stickers we use to close the envelopes of the Stay-at-Home tea.
They are little things, but added up together they will go a long way in reminding our community that we are a thriving and robust group.
Windbreakers
Dorene Lorenz gave the jackets a field test in Scandinavia and reports the lightest weight is a great windbreaker and nice to throw on inside on a chilly day, buy the heaviest weight if you want to keep out a real rain.
Several Igloos have asked us to design a copy of our custom 100% sustainably manufactured in London windbreakers for their Igloo, and we are happy to comply.
Purchase multiple items at once and have them shipped to a single address to save significantly in shipping fees. The jackets are available in several different weights of fabric and over half-a-dozen different designs.
Sorry guys, it is a new product for the manufacturer and is only offered in Women's sizes so far.
Contact Juneau Igloo President Dorene Lorenz to have your logo added to the mix at The Pioneers of Alaska store.
Pioneer Trail Tails
1971 Juneau Women's Igloo President Marie Elizabeth "Betty" Bonnett Kendler Hunt was brave enough to be our first guest on Pioneer Trail Tales. Watch these excepts from our interview at the Pioneer Home, Betty is a great story teller!
Part of our 2024 initiative is to video tape our elders and capture that institutional knowledge before it's gone.
A committee run by First Vice President Karen Bonnet-Pederson began the process of interviewing elders in extended care last spring and intend to pick it back up this fall.
Historic Treadwell Mine Disk Golf Course
Tom Dawson, Denise Carroll, Virgina Calloway and Irene Gallion play their way through the Treadwell Mine ruins that make up the Disk Golf Course.
At our summer picnic, we had our second annual disk golf competition on the Historic Treadwell Mine course, recently carved from the wilderness by the Juneau Disk Golf Club.
Last year we were pleased to be the first group to play the course and adopted it. The Juneau Empire covered our antics and hijinx.
The men somehow managed to beat the women, again. Dorene swears the whole lot on the Men's team are nothing but a bunch of pot smoking wasting their youth throwing frisbee on the beach hippies. Brad actually fessed up to it.
We are looking forward to installing historical signage at each hole of the course so that players understand the historical significance of each of the sites, as well as hosting a Classic for the kids where we have a costumed guide at the holes telling stories about the Treadwell Mine and gift a disk that features a new hole and its building/artifacts each year.
Shannon Crossley heads up the Treadwell Mine Disk Golf Committee.
Scholarships
We gave one $2,000 scholarship to Hayden Kusakin from Juneau Douglas High School.
Hayden gave us a presentation and plans on using the scholarship to help in his goal of becoming an electrical engineer and return to Juneau and is currently working degree at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Tom Dawson came up with idea for a great big check which went over well at the presentation at the high school.
Sons Of Norway-Petersburg POA Cross Pollinating
Anchorage Igloo Linda Rindard, Seward Igloo Dona Walker, Anchorage Igloo Jacquie Glavinovich enjoy the generous portions of the shrimp feed.
Dorene Lorenz, SON Juneau President Laurie Fuglvog,and Irene Gallion walk the Viking Days Parade.
The Sons of Norway invited us to their meeting and to walk with them in costume representing Juneau in the Viking Days parade in Petersburg.
We were joined by members of the Anchorage and Seward Igloo, and had a nice mug up with the Petersburg Igloo.
Think about joining us the third weekend May to support the Petersburg Igloo in their community's largest celebration.
4th of July Parade
King Tom Dawson was folded up a couple times to fit in the rumpled seat of Fred Thorsteinson's a 1929 Ford Roadster as it made it's way through downtown Juneau while Queen Janice Holst blew kisses to the crowd from shotgun.
Semiquicentennial Minutes
As for the Semiquicentennial Minutes. we are in the brainstorming phase and trying to determine the real options from the world of possibilities.
Several news organizations have agreed to pick them up and assist with the effort.
Need a committee formed, and hoping Fairbanks Igloo will provide a leadership flex as they have the POA Museum.
Breaking Trail on New Data Management Software
Investigating software that is specific to managing data for non-profits to better assist us in managing events, keeping track of financials, updating member’s contact information and history, and more easily communicate with and between members and update our website. Dorene Lorenz is spearheading this effort.
Lone Sailor/USS Juneau Memorial
We are investigating working on Lone Sailor USS Juneau Memorial in conjunction with the newly formed Juneau Navy League.
There maybe an opportunity in the future to enhance our current memorial significantly as Juneau's shoreside attractions are being redesigned. Tom Dawson is chairing this project committee.
Wood Stacking Contest
We are celebrating the skills of our forefathers with a citywide wood stacking contest chaired by Kara Johnson, whom we poached from the Cordova Igloo.
Bragging rights and a really nice leather trimmed wood carrier were awarded to the largest, most artistic, and most symmetrical stack - amongst other categories.
Find the details including photos of all the winners and the Juneau Empire article here.
Douglas Island Cemetery Reclimation
Gone and mostly forgotten are the graves in the long neglected Douglas Cemeteries.
The Douglas Native Village on what is now the Sandy Beach area was burned in 1962 under dubious circumstances.
The President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood Troop 2, Jamiann Hasselquist, recently invited us to join with her in reclaiming a long neglected pioneer miner’s cemetery on Douglas Island as a means of healing a rift in our community.
Several buried in the Douglas miners cemetery took part in the intentional 1962 burning of the Indian Village on Douglas, and the subsequent taking of their land with minimal or no compensation, along with other overtly racist acts.
An elementary school and a house were apparently constructed on top of the Native cemetery adjacent to the miner's cemetery, reportedly without removing all the graves first.
We are looking forward to determining how we can meaningfully assist in this long-overdue community-healing effort.
Dorene Lorenz is the committee chair of this project, and Hasselquist will be offering a presentation on the project to the membership at our November meeting.
Suggestions thus far include installing signage and making a grave inventory with gps markers available on the internet so descendants can more easily find their kin.
