90th birthday party

So many Palmer people came out to the Palmer Community Train Depot on Sunday afternoon to celebrate Helen Woodings’ 90th Birthday. Helen is an active member of Palmer and is a fierce advocate for all things right and worthy. To know Helen Woodings is to be inspired. She has a large family and many friends. She has taught, kayaked, danced, skied, advocated, marched, and traveled all around the world. She laughs easily and isn’t afraid of sharing her opinion in an efficient and (mostly) graceful manner. She honored her dear husband, Guy Woodings, for bringing her to Palmer; he too was a wise and gentle man. Her love for community and our earth is undisputed. Young and old agree that Helen Woodings is (as her grandson says) “a true kick in the pants.”

The best thing about this huge community party is that Helen was alive and joyous at this event. After the fact memorials and “celebrations of life” are nice, but it is SO MUCH better when the celebrant is right there and present, enjoying the party, with everyone else! There were far more than 100 people attending, with at least 100 different reasons to celebrate Helen Woodings!

Poetry written for Helen Woodings by her friends and family

She came from the Northwest, tall and strong

And raised three daughters with her Guy

You might have guessed she’d stay so long

And thrive beneath the Northern Sky

She’s roved Alaska, low and high

On mountains, lakes and seas.

And given many things a try,

With paddles, boots and skis.

Not all of it has come with ease

Some parts took strength and grit

Bat at each turn she’s found the keys

To make the pieces fit

Her ninety years

We now celebrate.

Launch a thousand sips,

For Helen the Great.

Up north there’s a woman named Helen

Whose story is well worth the tellin’

She speaks out for the tress,

Birds, lands, and the bees,

And against the bad stuff that’s smellin’

There’s a woman who lives out in Palmer.

You might easily find someone calmer.

An Activist, she…

For our air, land and sea.

And for that—she defies the embalmer.

Annual Palmer Wearable Art Show—It was edgy. It was beautiful. It was cute. It was nostalgic. It was scary. It was futuristic. It was all that and more—as dozens of models cat-walked across the risers on Saturday night at the Palmer Community Center at the Train Depot. The music was well chosen for each entry and professionally produced for the performance. Spot-lighting was excellent. And the costumes were outrageous—in a good sense.

Bird costumes with real feathers, blue tarps, leather, antique parachute fabric, recycled papers, fabrics and doilies, lit from within were part of the many layered costumes. The crowd was appreciative at both the afternoon and evening performance. It takes many, many months to prepare costumes like the one’s shown. Art was very alive on the runway in Palmer Alaska and huge thanks to the Valley Art Alliance and helpers for producing such a high-quality show.

It is Scholarship Season—Local scholarships are due this time of year. MTA, Palmer Community Foundation, Alaska State Fair, Mat Su Health Foundation are just a few of the local scholarship entities. Plus there are grants with a few of these same groups and the Rasmusson Foundation.

Here’s some great stuff in Palmer, this week:

Wednesday Night—Palmer History Night at the Moose Lodge; Annual Palmer Chamber of Commerce meeting at the Mat Su Senior Center; Women’s Fat Bike Clinic with Backcountry Bike and Ski

Thursday—Third Thursday Palmer Entrepreneurs Meetup at the Annex

Friday—Wine Tasting at the Palmer Ale House; Dos Palmeranians at the Fishhook Bar; This is last weekend for Beauty and the Beast at the Massey Theater at the college.

Saturday—Explore Palmer Slough at Palmer Hay Flats; Spinning Bee at Turkey Red; Saturday Story-time at Palmer Library with Firefighter Jeff; Palmer 4H Symposium.

And don’t forget next Wednesday, Feb 26, is the annual “Rock the Resilience” at the Massey Theater at the College

Barbara Hunt is both Palmer writer and artist. She works hard to keep the robust pulse of Palmer, Alaska. She shares the good stuff in the weekly Palmer Alaska Buzz Column in the Mat Su Valley Frontiersman and daily on the Palmer Alaska Buzz Facebook Group. Her “Palmer Buzz Community Calendar” is available at Palmer shops and the Palmer museum. Contact at bhunt@mtaonline.net or text 907.315.3222