Loving Alaska with Hungarian subtitles

The highlight of my week was hands down the presentation that 16-year-old Justin Harris did at the Wasilla Sunrise Rotary club Tuesday morning. Justin departs for Hungary soon as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. He has put together a Power Point program that will undoubtedly teach his soon-to-be-friends in Hungary everything they need to know about Alaska.

Justin was so poised and entertaining that, at one point, he had the whole room standing and singing the Alaska state song. Oh, and the entire presentation comes with Hungarian subtitles. I’m making a not so bold prediction; Justin will be a leader in whatever field he chooses after his education is complete.

Senator Sullivan and his civic obligation

U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan made a couple of appointments on Tuesday that he wasn’t able to keep. He was scheduled to stop by the Frontiersman office that morning but cancelled. Turns out Senator Sullivan was called for jury duty and wasn’t released until after 3 p.m. Yep, even U.S. Senators get summoned for jury duty. Being the gentleman that he is, he came by the office just after 5 p.m. He wanted to reach out to let us know about the Alaska Wellness Summit, conquering the opioid crisis, that his team is organizing for Thursday Aug. 4 at Mat-Su College in Palmer. Check out his Op-Ed in this Sunday’s edition of the Frontiersman for more details. It’s a national problem and he has some heavy hitters coming to the event.

More from the Senator

Managing Editor Matt Hickman and I sat with Senator Sullivan and his aides and discussed a variety of topics. One topic of discussion was our military. I shared with him my experience while in the military from 1981-84 and told him we could feel the transition from President Carter’s administration to President Reagan’s — especially the lack of defense spending by the Carter administration and the willingness of Reagan’s to invest in our military future. At the beginning of my enlistment, we trained on equipment that constantly needed repair or broke down during critical training times. By the time I left the army, I could see the difference that a willingness to invest made in equipment and vehicle maintenance, new weapons development and most importantly, morale. Senator Sullivan has his eye on the ball when it comes to the military particularly protecting our Alaskan interests.

The Mayors say aye!

Columns from Wasilla, Palmer, Houston and the Mat-Su Borough leaders will be coming to the Frontiersman soon. We’re excited to see where this leads as far as getting you, the reader, important information from your municipalities.

Miner update

The Mat-Su Miners are currently in first place sporting a 22-15 record after this past Wednesday games. They hold a one-and-a-half game lead on the Peninsula Oilers and a two and half game lead on the Glacier Pilots. Hang on Miners!

Checking stats

Not baseball, but oil and weather: according to Nasdaq on July 28 oil closed at $41.10 a barrel, still on a steady decline.

After a check with AccuWeather it looks like the sun is going to shine on Saturday with rain off and on through the beginning of next week. They are reporting that we are in a frizzy hair advisory Monday through Thursday. Yes, it’s something they track.

Ending on a good one.

The CEO Francis Wick and COO Nick Monico paid us a visit last weekend. Together we put the final touches on the exciting changes we’ll be debuting soon. Francis and Nick left here with the utmost confidence in Team Frontiersman.

We can’t wait to share with our community when the time is right.