2012 brings locals many memorable people stories

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part year-in-review series of 2012 Valley Life features. See Tuesday’s Frontiersman for part two.

MAT-SU — In a year that the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman celebrated 65 years of bringing local news to the Valley, the Mat-Su’s hometown newspaper continued its decades-long tradition of telling the personal stories of our neighbors.

Some are stories of triumph, others of struggle, while others aim to keep the Valley rooted to its history. Many of these are longer, more in-depth features that centerpiece our Sunday Valley Life pages. In today’s and Tuesday’s editions, we recap some of the more memorable Valley Life features of 2012. You can also read these year-in-review stories online at Frontiersman.com to get access to links to the original full stories.

JANUARY

Volunteers plow driveways, mow lawns for military families

WASILLA — Dave Rykaczewski of Mat-Su Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance doesn't remember exactly how he got involved with the nonprofit Project EverGreen's SnowCare for Troops and GreenCare for Troops.

He does remember it was his wife Luanne's idea, and that she persisted until he relented and told her to go ahead and add first one lawn, and then another, to his daily to-do list.

Based in New Prague, Minn., the national nonprofit partners with local volunteers to provide free lawn care to U.S. military families with family members serving overseas.

Rykaczewski's company volunteers to plow five Valley driveways and tend three lawns for local military families. But he said the need is much greater.

"The families I see tend to be young women carrying for several young children while their husbands are deployed overseas," he said. "What we get out of it is satisfaction. It just makes us feel really good."

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/volunteers-plow-driveways-mow-lawns-for-military-families/article_ea960a48-3834-11e1-8917-0019bb2963f4.html

Sub-zero temps can't keep kids from sled dog event

PALMER — Don’t expect Abigail to be too excited.

The burly English bulldog tagged along as brothers Wayde, Wyatt and William Reinhart enjoyed a new experience in the cold minus 15-degree sunshine Saturday afternoon. The Reinhart boys were among dozens of Valley youths who took their first sled dog rides at the Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation Shelter. A fundraiser for the shelter, the experience was an eye-opening one for the boys.

Almost immediately after getting off the sled, pulled by five energetic dogs from Willow-based High Country Kennels, the boys were thinking about strapping Abigail up.

“Oh, they’ve already asked and I said no,” said Judy Reinhart, who brought the boys with her husband, Wayde Sr. “I don’t think she’d do that very well. She’s not a ‘real dog,’ she doesn’t think she’s a dog, anyway.”

That didn’t stop the boys from gushing about their ride around the shelter property.

“It was like being in a car, but dogs were pulling it,” said Wayde, 10. “They went kinda fast. When we were turning the corner, the sled slid sideways. I think the dogs were pretty cool, and because they’re so small and I did not know how they could pull like that.”

William, the youngest at age 6, said the ride “made my face an ice cube.”

http://www.frontiersman.com/news/sub-zero-temperatures-can-t-keep-kids-from-sled-dog/article_336b374e-3f50-11e1-bc56-0019bb2963f4.html

12-year-old author publishes first chapter book

WASILLA — What does a self-professed "nerd" and "weirdo" do for fun on a blustery Saturday afternoon? If you're 12-year-old Lauren DW Luchsinger Fox, you spend it signing copies of your newly published chapter book.

"Chaderick: Not a Vampire. Not a Zombie. Not a Superhero" chronicles the somewhat awkward adventures of a normal boy trying to fit in among a town full of superheroes.

A creation of the Twindly Bridge Charter School seventh-grader, Chaderick is "kind of a technology nerd and he's in this place where there's a bunch of superheroes," Luschsinger Fox said. "And, he decides he wants to become like them to be accepted. He fails at it, kind of. He just wants to belong to this group. In the end, he realizes that's not really who he is."

Seeing the results of about a year of work is a good lesson for Lauren, said her mother, Dana Luchsinger, who's also an author.

"She's been writing since she was in second grade, and I have suffered through many 100-page-long going nowhere (efforts)," said Dana, who gave her daughter advice and constructive feedback. "She tells me I made her cry at one point, because she thought they were perfect."

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/year-old-author-publishes-first-chapter-book/article_3cfc6364-44c8-11e1-b4e3-0019bb2963f4.html

FEBRUARY

Master Salumiere shares knowledge with fine-dining chefs

WASILLA — It’s been a real sausage fest at Mat Valley Meats.

A handful of fine-dining chefs ranging from San Francisco to Minneapolis to New York — most with decades of experience — returned to the classroom this week. The chefs traveled thousands of miles to the Mat-Su Valley to learn from one of the world’s master salumieres, Palmer resident François Vecchio. The Swiss-born master charcuterie has been perfecting the old-world craft of making sausage and cured meats for 60 years.

From pancetta, chorizo soria, Genoa salami, sopressata (a dry-cured sausage with fennel and red pepper) and zamponi to paté, boudin noir (also known as blood sausage), porchetta and the sophisticated boudin blanc (a white sausage made with pork, chicken and veal), Vecchio teaches chefs the fine details of his craft.

And it’s nothing like what most Americans are used to eating, he said.

“The core of the difference is that the industry works on numbers,” he said. “They’re driven by bottom lines, they’re controlled by scientists who count microbes and pH and stuff like that. Here, you have chefs who are educated with the taste, the sensitivity to flavor, aroma, looks. You go from a brain-driven relation to a heart, soul-sensitive connection to the ‘real’ stuff, and it makes a world of difference.”

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/master-salumiere-shares-knowledge-with-fine-dining-chefs/article_b5d98540-4e33-11e1-a80b-001871e3ce6c.html

Backdrop painter tackles major project for 'Oz'

WASILLA — A giant canvas occupies an entire wall of a small warehouse just up the road from Sears.

Sewn together from lesser canvases, it features a life-size scene of a dense, dark forest.

"That's what I'm really trying to do is make it look like you can walk into the background," said Dawn Alger, the artist who painted the scene.

Rolled up against one wall is another canvas. There's a third and a fourth canvas already done and she's planning what will go on the fifth.

And all of them will soon be on display in Valley Performing Arts' production of "The Wizard of Oz." The forest will double as the scene of the group's meeting with the Cowardly Lion and a scene featuring the Wicked Witch's flying monkeys.

Alger's also painted a sepia-toned Kansas farm backdrop for all the pre-tornado scenes, the interior of the Emerald City and a blue-sky, wide-open landscape to use in various spots, especially when Dorothy and her pals make it out of the forest. Still to go is Munchkinland, which Alger will paint on the back wall of the theater. She said it's probably going to be the most detailed of the backdrops and she's hoping to get some help for it.

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/backdrop-painter-tackles-major-project-for-oz/article_3596597c-4fb3-11e1-bad8-0019bb2963f4.html

Dozens jump into Wasilla Lake to raise funds for charity

WASILLA — Maybe it's some lingering effects of the cold, or maybe I (reporter Andrew Wellner) stayed up too late cobbling together a cape and underpants from newspapers and packing tape.

Either way, traditional news reporting just doesn't seem to fit with this year's Mat-Su Polar Plunge. Here, as a reasonable facsimile of a news story, is a list of random thoughts surrounding the icy dip and a few of the better quotes from my partner in plunging, my son Gabe Fish:

• Feb. 13, five days before the plunge: "What should I wear to do this? Street clothes aren't any fun."

Facebook suggestions included a diaper, butterfly wings and a gorilla suit. Not much help there, is what I'm saying.

• Feb. 16, the day before the plunge: "Why didn't I think of this sooner? Frontiers-Man! A newspaper superhero, guardian of truth, justice and public information."

• Feb. 17, the night before the plunge: "Two rolls of packing tape should be enough to keep it together long enough to jump in the water, right?"

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/dozens-jump-into-wasilla-lake-to-raise-funds-for-charity/article_730964c2-5aba-11e1-a0cb-0019bb2963f4.html

Annual fundraiser a wish come true for young cancer patient

FINGER LAKE — Chuck E. Cheese might be a place where a kid can be a kid, but you can’t catch a fish there. That’s a lesson 13-year-old Hunter Austin learned when contemplating his love for fishing and pizza.

Owning a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant was the first thing the Oak Park Middle School student from Leesburg, Fla., thought of when asked by the Make-A-Wish Foundation what he most wanted. Turns out, Make-A-Wish doesn’t buy businesses for people, but could still make a dream come true for the young cancer patient by granting his second wish — ice fishing in Alaska.

The Frontiersman caught up with Austin jigging several lines through the ice on Finger Lake Saturday. The teen, along with mother, Bonnie, and father, Brian, were bundled in a temporary tent trying to pull something — anything — out of one of four augured holes.

“I love fishing,” Austin said. “In Florida, we catch bass — large- and small-mouth — catfish, mudfish, crappie, even the occasional alligator. Fishing is basically my favorite thing. It’s boring, but I love it.”

Austin was one of hundreds of youth dropping lines through the lake as part of the fifth annual Getting’ Jiggy Kids Ice Fishing Derby, a fundraiser for the Alaska Make-A-Wish Foundation. It’s the brainchild of Wasilla resident Paul Reed, who organizes the event. While he enjoys raising money for Make-A-Wish, Reed said this year’s derby is special in that it also granted a wish.

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/annual-fundraiser-a-wish-come-true-for-young-cancer-patient/article_1905236c-6046-11e1-9954-0019bb2963f4.html

MARCH

DeeDee Jonrowe is latest subject for Iditarod doll-maker

WASILLA — For some people, growing older means growing up. But don’t try telling that to Judy Bowers, a bright-eyed, spritely 62-year-old who spends upwards of 12 hours a day with her dolls.

There’s Joe, Aurora, Libby, Dusty, Koyuk and her latest favorite, DeeDee. The handmade porcelain doll creations watch intently over Bowers’ left shoulder as she meticulously sculpts, paints and sews together another creation.

Two days before the official restart of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Willow, Bowers fluffs the replica summer parka on her new DeeDee Jonrowe doll.

The 18-inch porcelain collectible is realistic in nearly every detail. Jonrowe, who’s competing in her 30th Iditarod this year, is dressed in a pink summer parka and sports a wry smile. What sets Bowers’ creations apart is the fine details she sculpts into every face.

“I do all the sculpting, then I create the molds and then I pour in the porcelain,” Bowers said. “DeeDee was a challenge, because I actually started her in 2002, but because I got ill and wasn’t able to do things for awhile, I just now started it back up.”

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/deedee-jonrowe-is-latest-subject-for-iditarod-doll-maker/article_47332492-65b8-11e1-9030-001871e3ce6c.html

Annual gun show a social experience for many

PALMER — It takes a high-caliber weapon to turn heads at the annual Palmer Lions Club Gun Show, like Doug Albright’s Browning M2 .50-caliber machine gun.

The Fairbanks resident had the fully functional weapon mounted on two-by-fours at his booth. Albright isn’t selling the gun, but said it’s a great conversation piece and a way to draw show-goers to his table to see what else he has to offer.

“Oh, it works,” he said. “I’ve shot up old cars with it before, cast-iron boilers, they’re good, too.”

It’s at Albright’s table that Anchorage resident Deryl Titus was found admiring the Browning.

“I hate to drool,” he said. “That catches my attention.”

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/annual-gun-show-a-social-experience-for-many/article_0f98b93c-6b50-11e1-8ca6-0019bb2963f4.html

New memoir recounts historic Denali tragedy

MAT-SU — Jeffrey Babcock wasn’t an Alaskan when he went up Denali, but he was when he came down.

“It certainly was a turning point in my life. It’s certainly the reason I lived in Alaska and spent the bulk of my adult life there,” Babcock said.

Babcock, currently of Green Valley, Ariz., and formerly of Anchorage and Wasilla, was 20 when he made his first ascent of North America’s tallest peak in 1967. He’s written a book about the trip, “Should I Not Return.”

“I was from the East Coast, from Connecticut, and my brother, who is nine years older than I am, was leading the expedition for the Mountaineering Club of Alaska,” Babcock said.

Babcock’s brother invited him along and he accepted. Denali wasn’t a mountain a lot of people climbed back then.

“I think we were the 53rd expedition or something like that,” Babcock said.

That summer, a massive storm hit the mountain and another expedition higher up, the Wilcox expedition, was caught in it. Seven of the 12 members of that team were killed.

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/new-memoir-recounts-historic-denali-tragedy/article_a37ca80c-74ab-11e1-9050-001871e3ce6c.html

Cartoonist won't ever leave Alaska

WASILLA — Giving directions to his home in a subdivision east of Wasilla, Tundra cartoonist Chad Carpenter says to look for the truck pumping his septic tank.

It’s a pretty quotidian piece of life in the Valley, but Carpenter can’t resist.

“We’re having a fresh shipment of toilet humor delivered,” he says.

Three months ago, Carpenter’s comic strip entered its 500th newspaper. It was a big milestone for Carpenter and the rest of the Tundra team — his wife, Karen, marketing guy Bill Kellogg and longtime helper Zack Lamphier. It’s also kind of amazing considering Carpenter hasn’t left Alaska but for a brief few years Outside.

“I get a lot of people who are shocked that I live in Alaska,” Carpenter said, even at events in the state.

Carpenter grew up all over Alaska — dad was an Alaska Wildlife Trooper — but landed in Wasilla sometime around the fifth grade. He went to high school here.

He’s been cartooning all his life. He remembers Garfield coming out at about the time he hit Wasilla. It’s still one of his favorite strips, what really made him decide that “this is what I want to do.”

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/funny-business-despite-hitting-the-big-time-cartoonist-won-t/article_f3fea424-7a28-11e1-a3dc-0019bb2963f4.html

APRIL

Local 'yolkels' give Easter Bunny a helping hand

MAT-SU — It doesn’t take much to egg on Tracy Yates.

As organizer of the annual Palmer Elks Lodge 1842 Easter egg coloring egg-stravaganza, Yates doesn’t try to hide her egg-citement for the egg-cellent event.

“I love it, just love it,” Yates said while running from table to table Friday evening filling cups with brightly colored dyes. “Most of all, the kids are all wonderful.”

It makes the work hard-boiling 35 dozen eggs worthwhile, she said. Best of all, it brought out the inner child of Elks Exalted Ruler Mike Southcott. After some prodding, Southcott relented and sunk a couple eggs himself.

“Oh, my gosh, I haven’t colored eggs since I was a kid,” he said, adding being around the children is part of what makes being an Elk worthwhile. “The things we do for kids is wonderful, I think. They have so much fun and it’s worth all the time we put in.”

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/local-yolkels-valley-kids-give-easter-bunny-a-helping-hand/article_f3828208-8140-11e1-9d34-001a4bcf887a.html

Valley students show sportsmanship at NYO meet

HOUSTON — Already a foot over his previous personal best, Tommy Betti aggressively faces up to his opponent, and in a steely-eyed stare-down mutters something to his adversary.

The 17-year-old Wasilla High School student then steps back slowly and gathers momentum while most in the Houston Middle School gymnasium rhythmically clap. Betti takes a few strong steps and springs up, kicking the ball neatly with two feet before nailing his landing as those claps turn to cheers.

“Tell that ball who’s boss!” encourages WHS teammate Will Byrd. “Get in that ball’s face!”

While Betti’s personal best two-foot high kick of 66 inches wasn’t close to a medal height (a kick of 87 inches won the event), the good sportsmanship and team atmosphere was the norm Friday on the first day of the Valley’s Native Youth Olympics district meet. And for Betti, NYO is a way to feed his craving for competition.

After nailing the 66-inch kick — a far cry better than his previous personal best of 50 inches — Betti said his little ritual of addressing the ball prepares him mentally.

“I’m just telling the ball I’m going to kick it,” he said, adding those supporting his jump are also important. “That clapping helps. It’s an adrenaline rush that makes it work.”

http://www.frontiersman.com/news/valley-students-show-sportsmanship-compete-at-nyo-district-meet/article_b24a343a-86ad-11e1-afcd-0019bb2963f4.html

MAY

Club wrestlers put skills to test at state tournament

WASILLA — Those who think marathoners are crazy for running three or four hours straight to travel 26.2 miles should try six minutes on the mat.

At least, that’s what Ed Gravley thinks, and as a marathoner and lifetime wrestler, there’s no hesitation when asking him which is the more difficult sport.

“Oh, wrestling is much harder,” he said. “You use every muscle group you’ve go in your body. It’s much tougher.”

Gravley had to speak up to be heard over the din in the main arena at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center Saturday afternoon, as hundreds of wrestlers, coaches and families rushed from mat to mat as part of a statewide Alaska USA Wrestling tournament. Nearly 400 competed in Friday’s Greco Roman tournament, and about 850 in Saturday’s freestyle tourney, said Gravley, vice chairman for Alaska USA Wrestling and tournament director. This year’s event also featured a folkstyle tournament. Folkstyle is what’s wrestled at most high schools.

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/club-wrestlers-put-skills-to-test-at-state-tournament/article_46680190-9745-11e1-9462-0019bb2963f4.html

Happy hatchery at Birchtree Charter School

WASILLA — Jupiter, Copper, Donut and Bubba aren’t the most talkative members of Donna Levesque’s third-grade class.

But then, what do you expect? They just hatched.

Levesque teaches at Birchtree Charter School, a Waldorf-inspired school. In third-grade Waldorf classes, she said, the curriculum revolves around food, clothing and shelter. Part of that means building a shelter — kids and parents built a chicken coop on the school grounds — another means gardening and yet another revolves around sheep, wool and making clothing.

Animal husbandry is a key component; hence, the chicks that hatched at the school.

“It’s a real sense of wonder,” Levesque said when asked what the kids get out of it. “There’s also the responsibility of chores, which is a big one.”

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/happy-hatchery-raising-chicks-gives-kids-a-real-sense-of/article_4ff8b4e2-9caf-11e1-8383-001a4bcf887a.html

JUNE

Wounded veterans find comradeship, solace on Alaska hunt

WASILLA — Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler has seen his share of combat.

A seven-year military veteran, Zeigler also is a survivor of a 2009 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting spree that killed 13 soldiers and wounded 31 others. He also recalls marking this past week the fifth anniversary of Memorial Day 2007, which he spent in combat in Iraq.

“I was thinking about my friends I lost in Iraq that day,” Zeigler said. “It was pretty rough this time around, because it was the fifth-year anniversary of a very horrible day we had in Iraq.”

Zeigler said he lost six friends that day. Add to that the emotional and physical scars he carries from the Nov. 5, 2009, Fort Hood attack, when Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan opened fire with a pair of handguns in the military base’s Soldier Readiness Center.

While Zeigler and his wife, Jessica, have shared their story before, they’re in Alaska this weekend to spend some down time with others who can relate on a more personal level. Zeigler and Jessica are among the nearly two dozen wounded veterans and family in the Valley this weekend to hunt bear with each other and a few of their favorite celebrities.

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/wounded-veterans-find-comradeship-solace-on-alaska-hunt/article_b9927918-ad32-11e1-be60-001a4bcf887a.html

Palmer woman recalls torture as POW

PALMER — Rachel Block’s life has been a lesson in how forgiveness is easier to preach than to practice.

As a girl growing up in the Philippines, Block has vivid memories of a young life interrupted by war, humiliation and torture. She recalls the day her childhood came to an abrupt end — April 9, 1942. That’s the day Japanese soldiers raided her home in Momungan, a town in the Lanao province of the Philippine island of Mindanao.

It was also the last day for nearly three years the 13-year-old would see any of her family. Block and three of her 10 siblings were captured, and because her father was a wanted man, she became a target for torture.

“They pulled out all my fingernails and my toenails,” recalled Block, now a spritely 85-year-old resident of Cottonwood Estates in Palmer. “I was tied down to a chair. They beat me up first, they questioned me: ‘Where’s your dad?’ I said, ‘I don’t know,’ and I didn’t. They didn’t care.”

Beaten and bloody, with a broken jaw, arm and thigh bone, Block was then dragged outside and staked to an anthill, the same ant colony she would later learn her three captured siblings were also subjected to. She vividly remembers that the soldier tasked with her interrogation appeared uncomfortable torturing a 13-year-old girl, but his commanding officer seemed to enjoy it.

“I think the man that tortured me did not want to do it, because when I cried out when I felt the pain in my first three fingers, when I cried out to God to help me, then all of the sudden the pain was gone,” she said. “He couldn’t do it any more, because I was bleeding all over my face, my body, my bones were fractured and broken. The guy took a stool and he threw it down and marched out, he was disgusted. But the colonel sitting behind the desk? He was just smiling away like he was enjoying it.”

http://www.frontiersman.com/valley_life/palmer-woman-recalls-torture-as-pow/article_0d19c01a-b831-11e1-967f-001a4bcf887a.html