Alaskans Helping Alaskan Veterans and Service Members

Alaska has strong ties to the Armed Forces. If you live in Anchorage or Fairbanks you’ll have seen the impact of Fort Richardson, the Elmendorf Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright on the local economy and infrastructure. Estimates from the last Census reckon that there are about 20,500 soldiers plus family members stationed in Alaska. Alaska’s population also has the highest percentage of veterans in the nation; about 13.6 percent of Alaskan residents have served in the military. And from that group, a relatively high percentage are minorities.

According to the publication “American Indian and Alaska Native Veterans” on the Veterans Administration website, some 5,469 veterans in Alaska identified as Alaska Native or American Indian, or about 8 percent of all veterans in the state. The document also states that in 2010, nationwide, Alaska Native/American Indian veterans had the lowest median personal incomes of all veterans.

Image from Defense.gov

Last year around this time we wrote about grant opportunities for projects to help veterans.  This year, in honor of Armed Forces Day last weekend, we’d like to highlight four great organizations that are providing much-needed services and support to Alaskan veterans. Know of any other organization that deserves to be on this list? Let us know in the comments!

Alaska Veterans Business Alliance

Empowering veterans in search of a livelihood in civilian life is the Alaska Veterans Business Alliance, a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide a network of contacts for veterans who are small-business owners.

From their website:

“(The Alaska Veterans Business Alliance mission is to) provide Veterans including Service Disabled Veterans with the tools and resources they need to be successful in business by fostering entrepreneurship and business opportunities.”

Alaska Veterans Organization for Women

Post by YWCA Alaska.

Alaska Veterans Organization for Women (AVOW), is a nonprofit program of YWCA Alaska, and aims to connect, empower and honor women veterans in the state.

From their website:

“(AVOW’s) vision is to support women veterans through advocacy, collaboration, and empowerment to encourage connection with each other and their communities.

Through acknowledging and honoring Alaska women veterans’ experiences and achievements, they support and affirm the contributions of all veterans in our society.” 

Alaska’s Healing Hearts

Post by Alaska's Healing Hearts.

The Alaska's Healing Hearts nonprofit organization serves wounded veterans from around the nation, by organizing and providing outdoor recreation opportunities in Alaska, such as hunting, fishing and skiing.

From their website:

“(Alaska’s Healing Hearts programs) are not just the clinical rehabilitation programs which injured military personnel usually participate in; they also provide disabled Veterans with hope that they can live active and productive lives. Based on our own experiences these programs help bolster confidence and self esteem, while serving as a venue for them to assimilate with the public.”

Alaska Veteran’s Museum

Post by Alaska Veterans Museum.

The volunteer-staffed Alaska Veteran’s Museum, which opened in Anchorage in 2011, provides a place for veterans to tell their stories, and for non-veterans to honor the people who have sacrificed for our country.

From their website:

“We continue, unwavering, with our mission; preserve the memory of veterans and of their sacrifices for America's freedom, educate the community, and support veterans and active duty personnel.  And so, we aid Boy Scouts & Girls Scouts earning Americanism badges.  We have movie nights and books signings.  We send historians into schools to educate kids.  We send more Fan Mail to Troops than any other small organization in the United States.”

Want to learn more about what services veterans in your community need? Contact the Alaska Office of Veteran’s Affairs.

Celebrating Alaskan Museums

What have we achieved? How did we get where we are today?

How are our communities interlinked?

A visit to a museum helps answer all of these questions. This week, museums around the world are uniting to celebrate International Museum Day on May 18.

The 2014 theme is “museum collections make connections,” and so we started thinking about some of the museums, cultural centers and other places around Alaska that have helped us make connections—whether personal, cultural or intellectual. One of our favorites is the Sitka National Historical Park. It’s not strictly a museum, instead being part park, part cultural exhibit, and part window into history.

An urban park, it’s Alaska’s smallest in the national park system. It’s also the state’s first, established in 1910.

The park represents important events in the state’s cultural, political and industrial histories but is probably most famous with visitors for the 18 totem poles that stand along the park’s thickly forested paths.

The totem poles were collected from villages on Prince of Wales Island in the early 1900s by Governor John Green Brady for an exhibition down south about the recently acquired Alaskan territory. He asked village elders to donate the poles as part of a tourism effort that would inspire and entice travelers to come north.

Visitors to the park can enjoy the traditionally carved poles that were part of the original installation in the park as well as poles that were made with modern influences in recent years. Maintaining the totem poles and providing a space where they can be seen by the public—entrance to the park is free—has helped make sure that the poles and the carving techniques represented have been preserved as artwork.

But the totem poles are only one third of the historical significance of the park. Sitka was a long-term Russian settlement before Alaska was purchased by the United States government. The land where the park is located today was the site of important battles and skirmishes between the Russians and local Kiks.ádi Tlingit. Other important places within the park are the site of the Tlingit fort, the Russian Memorial and the log house that was once the Russian Bishop’s home.

Did you know?

There are four kinds of traditional totem poles found in the Sitka National Historical Park:

• Crest poles, which illustrate clan lore and history • Mortuary poles, which honor someone who has passed away • History poles, which help pass on stories from the oral history traditions • Ridicule poles, which address inequalities or community disputes and attempt to shame others into action

While you’re at the park, don’t miss a look at the fusion of modern and traditional motifs and techniques employed in the totem pole carved to recognize the park’s 100-year anniversary in 2010.

Learn more about the National Historical Park with these downloadable brochures.

Other notable museums and learning centers in Alaska

Not only a great source of learning and inspiration in our community, these organizations' websites and social media feeds offer great examples of outreach that works! Click here to learn about even more Alaskan museums.  Would you like to add another organization to this list? Let us know in the comments or drop us a line on social media.

Inupiat Heritage Center, Barrow

Alaska Native Heritage Center, Anchorage

Alutiiq Museum, Kodiak

The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Anchorage

Pratt Museum, Kachemak Bay

Alaska Jewish Museum, Anchorage

Hammer Museum, Haines

Prince William Sound Museum, Whittier

Alaska Veterans Museum, Anchorage

Totem Heritage Center, Ketchikan

Alaska Aviation Museum, Anchorage