Neighbors helping neighbors make Alaska strong

When the Good Friday earthquake struck here 50 years ago, it tested the mettle of Alaskans at a time when communication and transportation technologies kept the Last Frontier remote.

Whether you lived through that day, or have moved to Alaska in the decades since, you can’t help seeing the indelible marks left from that event.

Alaska is still fairly isolated. Many of us live far away from our places of birth and our extended families. Because of this, we have all built new networks of friends and family here that help us when the challenges life presents are larger than we can manage. There is no way around it here. We often need each other to survive.

It doesn’t take a disaster on the scale of the 1964 earthquake to remind us, either. Helping each other is the daily ethos of life in Alaska, and especially in the Valley.

Few, if any, families affected by the earthquake’s devastation had insurance to bail them out. So much of the recovery was done the Alaska way -- neighbors helping neighbors.

Old-timers and scientists alike remind us to be vigilant. They say it is only a matter of time before another earthquake of this magnitude rattles Alaska to its core and reminds us again we are merely specs moving an on the face of this mighty planet Earth.

Emergency response drills conducted this past Thursday through Saturday were an effort to make sure Alaskans are as ready as possible for the next time the earth rolls like ocean waves.

While modern technologies give us the illusion of mastery over our environment, in times of disaster — when phones, Internet, electrical and water systems, roads and airports could be out of commission — we are forced to rely on each other for survival.

We are proud to be Alaskans, and proud of our independenceIt is our stories of shared struggles and triumphs that weave the tapestry of this place into legend.

Here at the edge of the wilderness, there is no need for another record-setting shake to remind us that unity is our strength. We do this sort of thing here all the time.

Join your neighbors today — on the 147th anniversary of the Alaska Purchase — to help raise funds for Rob and Margaret Czarnezki of Palmer. Neighbors helping neighbors — that’s what makes Alaska strong.

A fundraiser is planned from 3 to 7 p.m., today at Four Corners Lounge to benefit Rob and Margaret Czarnezki of Palmer. The community has organized more than five hours of live music, silent and live auctions and kids’ activities to help pay a mountain of medical bills resulting from Rob’s inoperable brain tumor. Cover is $10 per adult, $5 per child and $20 per family.