Former New Year’s babies share life updates

WASILLA — Hoopla over first baby born in the New Year may not be as prevalent as in years past, but adults whose early January births made headlines still have plenty of stories to tell.

According to an article in the Dec. 31, 1947 edition of the Frontiersman, the tradition of hosting a “baby derby” that awarded the parents of the first January baby started years before the newspaper was founded. In 1948, the parents of Katherine Ruth Hartley were the first winners recorded in the paper. They won a free taxi ride home from Valley Presbyterian Hospital, a baby blanket, baby booties, a professional birth photo, $5 to Valley Theatre, six cans of evaporated milk, and other goodies.

Other New Year’s babies featured in the paper over the years include Wasilla High graduate Alana Wright — now Alana Friese of Alana Friese Photography — who was born to Pamela and Sande Wright at 1:10 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1990; 2011 Colony graduate and soccer standout Avery Smith, who was born to Kent and Joan Smith at 4:09 a.m. on Jan. 4, 1993; and Timothy Friday, who was born to Mr. and Mrs. William Friday at 3:36 p.m. on Jan. 9, 1966. Timothy’s brother William, who still lives in the Valley, said his brother lives and works in Anchorage.

Winning parents continued to receive gifts like those given the Hartley family regularly through the 1980s, but as the population of the Valley increased, the practice dropped off. In recent years, hospital policy at Mat-Su Regional has been to discourage the media from reporting on the first baby born each year due to privacy issues.

“I thought, ‘That’s crazy.’”

Heather Barber, whose son Christopher was born just before midnight on Jan. 1, 1996, said she couldn’t recall having received any sort of award from any organization for bearing the first baby of the year.

But her family did get their picture in the paper.

Barber said she was surprised when the midwives at Mat-Su Midwifery, where Christopher was born, told her he had won the informal competition for the first baby of the year. After all, he wasn’t due until Jan. 7, and Jan. 1 was almost over when he was born.

Barber said it seemed almost fated for her son to be born on New Year’s Day, as her own birthday is July 4 and her daughter Morgan’s falls on Memorial Day weekend.

“We always joke that my husband’s the boring one,” she said.

Heather and Christopher were featured on the cover of Alaska Parenting Magazine that month, having done a pre-birth photo shoot just weeks before. Four hours after their baby boy was born, the family drove home from the midwifery, and awoke later that morning to a congratulatory call from the Frontiersman.

All the attention was exciting, but a little overwhelming, Barber said.

“I thought, ‘That’s crazy. I literally had a baby like 12 hours ago,’” she remembered.

Now it’s been 20 years, and the family remains on the same Palmer property they’ve had since Christopher was 2-years-old. He’s completed a year and a half of mechanical engineering education at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, and is currently applying for jobs, hoping for a position on the North Slope.

Growing up as a New Year’s baby didn’t mean too much to him, but the holiday “definitely helps people remember my birthday,” he said.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”

The first baby born in the following year saw a little more significance in her birthday, at least once she grew old enough to understand it.

Mat-Su Career and Technical High School graduate Kristina Wickham was born at 8:51 p.m. on Jan. 2, 1997, the first reported birth at Valley Hospital that year. Her mother, Patty, said she and husband Greg were very surprised by the news, given her Jan. 12 due date and the fact that no baby was born at the hospital on New Year’s Day.

Kristina said she remembers when her grandmother told her why her birth received so much fanfare in the newspaper. She was excited.

“I was like, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” Kristina said.

By now most of her friends know that little bit of trivia about her. Through her involvement with Business Professionals of America in high school, Kristina obtained an academic scholarship to the University of Alaska, which she started putting to use this fall at Mat-Su College. While pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance, she is also working at Starbucks in Palmer. She said she loves hunting, shooting and wearing camo.

“I think it’s pretty cool.”

Aja Mann, a 2012 graduate of Colony High School, was an even later New Year’s baby, coming into the world on the morning of Jan. 4, 1994. Her parents are Steve and Melody Mann, both teachers at Colony Middle and Colony High, respectively.

“I didn’t realize for a long time that I was the first in the valley,” Aja wrote in a Facebook message. “As I’ve gotten older I think it’s pretty cool. It’s crazy for me to think there wasn’t another baby born before the 4th that year.”

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.