Food Pantry & Chamber of Commerce - Wasilla, AK
Wasilla, AK
I was late getting up with turning the light off so late, which has been the norm throughout this trip with doing this blog. Sheila wanted me to pick a trim to go on the parky she was making for me so I went with her to look at the choices .............she had so many, there were hundreds. She selected some she thought would go with the material she'd used for the jacket & we settled on one of those. I asked her if she could put an emblem or something on the outside of the parky so that everyone would know where I got it from but she said that was 'tacky'!
I was going to stay in all day as I had my mess to sort for leaving tomorrow, plus I was cooking dinner tonight & wanted to catch up on a couple of days of the blog. I also wanted to visit the Food Pantry where Eddie works so Sheila rang Eddie as he would be coming this way for a Chamber of Commerce meeting later & could pick me up but the Pantry would be closed as it serves people 10-1pm Monday to Friday. Sheila said that she could have dropped me off but I wasn't ready, I asked if she could wait 5 mins. I zoomed downstairs & returned a few minutes later dressed with my backpack.
It didn't take long to drive to Wasilla. (pop 7,850). The town started off as a station on the Alaska Railroad in 1917 then with the railroad & government auction bringing in settlers, Wasilla became the supply town for the Willow Creek Mining District. It is the hometown of former Alaska governor & vice presedential candidate, Sarah Palin & home to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the inaugural one left for Nome on March 3 1973.
The Iditarod Trail had its beginnings as a mail & supply route from the coastal towns of Seward & Knik to the interior mining camps at Flat, Ophir, Ruby & beyond to the west coast communities of Unalakleet, Elim, Golovin, White Mountain & Nome. Mail & supplies went in, gold came out, all by dog sled. In 1925 part of the Iditarod Trail became a life saving highway for epidemic-stricken Nome. Diphtheria threatened & serum needed to be taken in & was done so by dog mushers & their faithful dogs.
The Iditarod has been called The Last Great Race on Earth. Someone said "You can’t compare it to any other competitive event in the world! A race over the roughest, most beautiful terrain Mother Nature has to offer. She throws jagged mountain ranges, frozen river, dense forest, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast at the mushers and their dog teams. Add to that temperatures far below zero, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility, the hazards of overflow, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs and side hills, and you have the Iditarod. A race extraordinaire, a race only possible in Alaska."
Each team of 12 to 16 dogs & their musher cover over 1,049 miles (this is the symbolic number of race miles, 1000 standing for something great & 49 for Alaska being the 49th State) from Anchorage to Nome on the western Bering Sea coast in 10 to 17 days. Mushers come from all walks of life - fishermen, lawyers, doctors, miners, artists, natives, Canadians, Swiss, French and others. It’s a race organised & run primarily by volunteers. There are certain pieces of equipment each team must have — an arctic parka, a heavy sleeping bag, an axe, snowshoes, musher food, dog food & boots for each dog’s feet to protect against cutting ice and hard packed snow injuries. Mushers spend a year getting ready & raising the money needed to get to Nome. Some prepare around a full-time job.
Wasilla has no 'downtown' as such as the shops are spread out along the road & there are plenty of them! Major chain retail stores, car dealers, fast food restaurants & small businesses line the Parks Highway. New subdivisions have sprung up along Wasilla's back roads & Connie drove me around the area a bit a few weeks ago to show me some of the houses, including hers.
The Wasilla Food Pantry was founded in 1989 as a ministry of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Wasilla to meet the need for emergency food for people within the community. In 1992, It became a member of the Valley Christian Conference & organized under the guidance of a board of directors. On March 24, 1994 it became registered as a nonprofit organisation.
The Food Pantry in Wasilla was a hive of activity when we arrived, several volunteers were sorting through the mound of canned goods we collected on Saturday at the State Fair. The amount collected was incredible, people were so generous. Some local farmers donate some of their crops to the Pantry & today there was a large amount of zucchini available for customers. In addition to the donated food Eddie buys pallet loads of 'government food’, which he said is food the government purchases to, I think, keep prices down (I will need elucidation please Eddie!).
Eddie showed me around the premises, he had a 2nd office built recently & is now on his own, with a very nice desk which he said Sheila got for him. Originally the Food Pantry was in a cupboard in the church building next door & has expanded several times so they are able to help feed more & more people in the community. They recently also had a new chiller added as the previous one was not big enough. Eddie took me through to the front where 2 customers were selecting products. I took a photo without thinking then told a customer I had done so but could delete it if she wanted, she was ok about it. There were 2 ladies at the front desk checking names & so on as people can only come once a month for food parcels. Eddie introduced me to all the staff & volunteers & I chatted with most about what they do at the Pantry. In addition to the items customers can select themselves small boxes of staples were prepared by The Food Pantry staff.
In the summer holidays a table is put outside & school kids receive a meal, for many it is the only meal they would have that day.
Two Down Syndrome teens were working in the kitchen dividing up & bagging frozen meat patties. I asked them if they minded if I took their photo, the girl, Kendall, said that she didn’t know, but Glacier said that I could take his & he posed for me!
Eddie was going to drop me home prior to the Chamber of Commerce meeting he was going to attend but then said I could go if I wanted, so I did as I wanted to know what it was about. The meeting was held in the Grandview Hotel in Wasilla, we were early, as Eddie had expected to take me home first. There was a buffet lunch, which we partook of & Eddie introduced me to several people. There were 2 speakers, one owned a small printing business & the main speaker, Dr Deena Paramo, who is superintendent for the Mat-Su Borough School District. She spoke about the school system in the Wasilla area & what their aims are for each & every child & her desire that all Mat-Su students graduate with the skills & knowledge to prepare them for a successful career, military, or college experience after graduating. She was a great speaker, interesting & passionate about what she does.
It was the birthday of one of the organisers & she was presented with a birthday cake, which was cut up & handed out to everyone at the meeting.
Eddie dropped me home & I spent most of the afternoon working on my blog. It was another beautiful, sunny day but I stayed inside. I began dinner shortly before Eddie got home, he said Sheila was stuck in another traffic jam. When she arrived home she had finished sewing a summer parky for me apart from the pockets, which she had left so that I could see how the trim (that I selected from her hundreds this morning) looked on the pockets. She finished sewing the perky totally after dinner, it was an unusual colour & the trim is one that she doesn’t offer to everyone – I was honoured.
We had dinner, a typical Kiwi one, with roasted chicken pieces, roast potato & sweet potato & stir fry vegs. Eddie went off to bed as he was tired & was expecting a busy day Wednesday with having to finalise the writing of a grant proposal & a senator was due to visit the Food Pantry so we said our goodbyes in case I didn't get to see him in the morning. Sheila & I sat around chatting in the lounge & watching tele. I had told her & Eddie about Airbnb & Sheila spent ages on her mobile 'fantasising' about where they could to go to stay & was suitably surprised at the cheapness of some of the accommodation such as in Palm Springs.
I still hadn't done any sorting or packing of my stuff so took my leave & went downstairs. It didn't take long to pack most of my things & then got between the sheets to enjoy my last night in the lovely comfy bed & my last night in Alaska. I was sorry to be leaving such a lovely State with so many friendly, hospitable people. Prior to coming I had intended that this was a once in a lifetime trip & I would never be back but Alaska had got under my skin & I could certainly see myself returning.