3-on-3 Championship

By Annie Sanford
Teams around the district gathered in Northway, Alaska on November 20, 2014 to participate in the 3-on-3 basketball championship. Set games were played all throughout Thursday afternoon to determine Friday's schedule.

Eagle, Dot Lake, Mentasta, Tetlin, Tok, and Northway middle school and high school teams played 20 minute half-court games with one 30 second time-out.

After a long afternoon of playing and stomaches filled with dinner, all six teams were able to attend a dance Thursday evening.

When asked what she thought of it and how she felt about how her team preformed, Brittney Alsup said,"I thought that the 3 on 3 championship tournament was really fun! I thought my team played really well! Everyone hit some awesome shots. It was also pretty fun to watch the other teams play each other. I had a great time playing!"

Blake Sanford had this to say, "It was very fun and I think my team did great!"

Congratulations to the high school Tok Blue team, Katrice Thomas, Shawn Frank, Colton Peet, and Kia Thomas, for taking first place. The Northway high school team took second place and Mentasta took third place.

Tok Biomass

By Annie Sanford

Biomass

Over the past decade, the community of Tok and the outlying communities have been threatened by wildfires. The Alaska Division of Forestry has worked toward a safer environment by creating a bio-energy project. The project became a reality in 2010.

The dense forests surrounding Tok was made into renewable fuel for the wood chop fired boiler. The boiler is able to heat the school, saving the school thousands of dollars in heating costs.

The 17 foot, 6 foot wide, and 12 foot long boiler is fed by a conveyor belt carrying wood chips that were previously shredded in a Rotochopper grinder. The dense forests were able to be thinned out by the Alaska Division of Forestry specially for the biomass.

The schools maintenance team is responsible for keeping the biomass working smoothly. Thad Tucker takes care of the wood chipping and Randy Warren is the main person that overlooks the running of the biomass.

When asked her opinion about the biomass, Ariana Eschenbacher said, "It doesn't work very well in the winter."

The school is very large and takes a lot of wood chips and time to make sure the whole school warms up.

On the other hand, Jacob Kaus had this to say about the biomass operation,"When it's on it's really hot and I enjoy it."

Thanks to the support of the Division of Forestry, the Tok community, Alaska Gateway School District, the Alaska Energy Authority, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and funds from a 3.2 million dollar state renewable-energy grant and approximately 750,000 dollars from the Alaska Legislature. The biomass is still working today to save the school district money while heating the school.

Egg Drop at Tanacross Airport

By Annie Sanford and Shelby Clark

The fourth grade class and honors cohort journeyed to the Tanacross airport on Monday, October 13 for their egg drop. Monday morning, the classes ventured out to take turns riding in a bush plane to drop their egg.

Excitement and nervousness swirled around the fourth grade and honors cohort class. I acquired the chance to interview Hannah Ekada before it was her turn. I began by asking how she had protected her egg. She responded, "I wrapped it up in tissue and put it in stuffing and cotton balls. Then I put it in the box." When asked how she felt, Hannah replied, "Excited, scared, and a little bit nervous."

The snowy ground was lined with boxes of all different sizes, parachutes, bubble wrap, and tape. Each box was unique to each of it's creators. As the pilot of the bush plane went over the safety information to the class, reality set in to the class and more nervous feelings began to arise.

When the first child, went up in the plane, the eyes of his classmate filled with excitement and curiosity, when he dropped his egg contraption his classmates cheered and shouted words of encouragement to him.

After the plane landed he ran to his contraption and found his egg, had unfortunately cracked, but his water bottle had escaped the treacherous drop unharmed.

What's Cooking?

By John Folan

Throughout the years, we have received food at roughly noon every day. This food has been what kept us going throughout the day, time and time again. But most never ask where this food comes from or why this food is here. This article is being written to fix that misstep that so many students make.

To start with, the menu itself is not made by anyone here at the school, but by officials at the school district. They obtain some of the vegetables from a garden that they possess here on school property, and whatever else they need they get from Tok’s stores or from their distributor in Fairbanks.

The menu needs a certain amount of meat, grain, fruit, and vegetables a week every week of the year. When the menu is decided and the food is obtained, then of course, they have to actually prepare the meal. According to cooks Jennifer James and Rachel Gallen, “We are here 5 ¾  hours a day” working on the cooking and preparing of breakfast and lunch. During this, they go through 150 servings of food, which includes roughly twenty to twenty-five pounds of meat and a similar amount of vegetables.

So when it comes down to it, there is a lot of preparation and work that goes into every meal, enough to cause anyone’s day to become busy. From the menu’s being made with guidelines in mind, to the food being obtained, to the cooking of the food and cleaning of the kitchen, one can easily see how this can take over 5 hours every day. I personally appreciate all of the hard work that they do, and I thank them for all of the delicious meals that they have made for us.

Bring Back GAP?

By Jacob Kaus

GAP used to be an afterschool program that was offered by the school. Many children attended the program daily after school to finish homework and to participate in the engaging and exciting afterschool activities.

"GAP became a household term in our school district," said LeAnn Young, the school's athletic director. Some activities provided by GAP were bicycle club, cheer club, pottery, young naturalists, random acts of kindness (RAK) club, bicycle rodeo, drama, and robotics. "What GAP did was eliminate barriers to participation and organize and advertise all opportunities."

Leanne and many of the students that had participated in GAP activities would love to see it return. "GAP was fun," said junior Annie Sanford. Daniel Dompierre and John Folan also expressed similar feelings.

Sadly, for the moment, the school does not have the funding for such programs. "Going back about 13 years ago, a funding source through a grant was found to finance GAP. Three years ago that funding source was exhausted," said Tok principal Jason Roslansky. "So, a sad fact that occurs when you have limited funds, is programs get cut."

Many of the students hope that GAP can one day be reinstated in Tok School.

Moose Hunting

By Georgia John

The opening date for the 2014 hunting season was September 8 and it ended on September 17th. There was one successful hunt that carried out one, 55 inch antler, moose in the village of Tanacross. Burt Jonathan shot the moose out on a road hunt.

Dollie Jonathan, mother of Burt, helped in preparing for both the trip and the kill.

They started the road hunt at approximately five in the morning and ended around nine in the evening. The supplies included: a gun with a sight, knives, water, game bags, a little hatchet, and a tarp.

It’s a tradition in the Athabascan culture to always observe the surroundings from where the moose was shot, cut the head off of the moose, and face the head towards where you came from. Another common tradition is to cover the eyes with a cloth and to get the family together in order to say a prayer for the animal giving up its life.

When asked her opinion about the whole experience of the hunt, Dollie said, “With our traditions, we cut the moose in a special way in order to show that we can use every bit of the moose that is given to us. Bones, heart, liver, kidneys, etc., everything is used. For many years we have been using our traditional values to take care of the moose.”

When asked for advice, Burt stated, “Sų́'ų nt’eh ts'axdetdîig,” meaning, “don’t be lazy.” You have to put all your effort into everything that the moose had to offer. Do not waste any part of the animal.

My EMT-1 Experience

By Ariana Eschenbacher

From the 8th of October through the 17th I was one of nine students in an EMT-1 class. It was very intense. We went through 30 lessons in seven days and worked on developing skills that would help us in the field. We went through splinting, backboarding, bandaging, and assessments. We even did ATV rescue. The instructor for the EMT-1 class was Paul Berio, an EMT-3.

The program ended on the 18th with our testing day. 

There were lessons on how to treat a medical patient and how to treat a trauma patient. We even went through how to diagnose a person with cardiac trauma and what to do if a diabetic person was acting strangely and what we should do. 

I learned new acronyms, like S.A.M.P.L.E. (Signs and symptoms, Allergies, Medications, Pertinent history, Last oral intake, Events leading to the incident). These are things that you would ask a patient. I also learned an acronym called D.C.A.P.B.T.L.S. This stands for Deformities, Contusions, Abrasions, Punctures, Burns, Tenderness, Lacerations, and Swelling. 

This program is beneficial because it teaches skills that may help you save others in an emergency. These skills can also lead to a career in emergency care.