Events
ALASKA ROCK GARDEN SOCIETY
PLANT SALE
5/29/2021 – 10AM
Alaska Rock Garden Society
Snowfire Gardens
3379 Inlet Vista Cir. Wasilla
FREE Admission
VALLEY GARDEN CLUB PLANT SALE
5/29/2021 – 10AM
Valley Garden Club
Boys & Girls Club
3700 E Bogard Rd. Wasilla
FREE Admission
MILES FOR MEALS ON WHEELS FUN
RUN, WALK & ROLL 5K
6/1/2021 – 9AM
Wasilla Area Seniors, Inc.
1301 S Century Cir. Wasilla
Cost: $25
MUSIC IN THE PARK
6PM-9PM, Fridays in June
Wonderland / Iditapark, Wasilla
594 W. Nelson Ave, Wasilla
Food Trucks, Vendors, Live Music, Beer Garden, Prizes & Giveaways
FREE Admission
8TH ANNUAL RALLY 2 THE RANCH
6/5/2021 – 10AM
Second To None M/C & CMA’s Midnight
Son Riders Chapter 801
Northway Mall
3101 Penland Pkwy. Anchorage
Donations Welcome
WINGS OVER WASILLA FLY-IN AIRSHOW
June 11-13, 2021
Wings Over Wasilla (WOW)
Wasilla Airport
900 S Beacon St. Wasilla
FREE Admission
www.citypfwasilla/airshow
12TH ANNUAL MS RIDE FOR A CURE
6/11/2021 – 10AM
Midnight Son Riders, Chapter 801of Christian Motorcyclists Association & Denali Harley-Davidson
Denali Harley-Davidson 1497 S Hyer Rd. Palmer Cost: $25+
FREE HOTDOGS AT WASILLA LAKE
6/26/21 – 1PM-3PM
Wasilla Lake, Wasilla Kabayan Inc.
Filipino-American Community of Mat-Su
Contributed by Carmen Summerfield
Art on Fire 2021
6/26/2021 – 12PM
Valley Arts Alliance
Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry
3800 W Museum Dr. Wasilla
Tickets: FREE Children (0-12), $10
Reg. Admission
It’s time for another hot, Hot, HOT Iron Pour! Yes, for the 14th year, the Valley Arts Alliance Art on Fire Iron Pour Art Fest will be held on Saturday, June 26, 2021 in Wasilla. The Valley will be buzzing with artists from across the country, as they gather to cast unique iron sculptures, create Raku pottery, and engage in other similar “fiery” events.
A team of skilled foundry men and women, consisting of Pat Garley, who owns Arctic Fires Bronze in Palmer, D’jean Jawrunner, a college professor from New Mexico who teaches metal casting, Donnie Keen a commercial foundry owner from Houston, Texas, and other local sculptors and skilled metal workers will demonstrate the fascinating 5000-year-old iron casting process using a custom designed furnace known as a cupola.
In the weeks preceding this event, Pat Garley will be offering workshops in metal casting and mold making at his studio in Palmer. These workshops will continue at the VAA Art on Fire Iron Pour Art Fest, when these molds are poured with liquid iron. See scenes of previous years events on our archives pages, www.ValleyArtsAlliance.com
At this Art on Fire Iron Pour Art Fest, visitors can create their own small molds, for their own unique iron plaques. These small mold blanks, approximately 6 inches square, can be etched or “scratched” with a design which, when filled with molten iron, will render a unique keepsake. Known
as a “scratch block”, these blanks are available for $10.
Throughout the day, artists will conduct Raku pottery workshops. Raku differs from other forms of pottery in that after a short firing, the “red hot” vessels are placed inside a metal can full of combustible materials, a process that draws the oxygen out of the glaze and is responsible for the unique and completely unpredictable Raku look.
The Association of Alaskan Blacksmiths will demonstrate blacksmithing techniques, Judy Vars will demonstrate Encaustic wax painting, and other fiery arts, such as glass flameworking, will also be demonstrated. Several local painters will setup their easels and demonstrate their work. Live music and food will be available throughout the day.
The VAA Art on Fire Iron Pour Art Fest will be held at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry, located at 3800 W. Museum Drive (near the airport) in Wasilla, from noon until 5pm on Saturday, June 26. The ticket price is $10, with children under 12 admitted free. Please join the fun! We hope to turn this day into an extraordinary Iron Pour Art Fest in the Valley!
Contributed by Sharon Aubrey, Relevant Publishers LLC
Jared the Giant, The Secret is the first book in a new children’s series, Jared the Giant, by Alaskan author, Sharon Aubrey. The first book is about a little boy named Jared who is afraid of spiders. Arachnophobia and fear negatively impact every aspect of his life. Jared runs away every time he sees a spider. With fear controlling his life, he feels powerless to live comfortably in his own home. Then one day, Jared’s mother tells him a powerful secret that empowers him
to transform into a giant. From his new perspective as a giant, Jared isn’t afraid of tiny spiders any more. Suddenly, the spiders seem to be afraid of him!
Educational information on spiders is included at the back of the book to help children learn about spider anatomy, arachnophobia, the benefits of spiders, and identify six common spiders in their environment. This book is ideal for children ages Pre-K through second grade with a Flesh-Kincaid Reading Score of 2. Jared the Giant, the Secret is a
great resource for homeschooling parents and parents whose children would like to learn more about spiders. Available in three formats: ISBN 9780990998495 (hardback), ISBN 9780999260517 (paperback), ISBN 9780999260500 (ebook).
Sharon Aubrey is the founder and managing director of Relevant Publishers LLC, an award-winning publishing house in Sutton, Alaska. She was also a homeschool parent at Mat-Su Central School in Wasilla for 15 years.
Contributed by Charles Dean Walker
I hope someday I can finally feel peace. Life is just beginning to get good. I refuse to commit suicide again. There’s still a reason why I’m here. I can’t let my depression take me. Rather just see I’m in a slump period. Just need to slow down.
Contributed by Joshua Fryfogle
Be like the spring Stretch forth your arms In the morning
Be like the trees Shoot forth your leaves And your seed
Be like the flower Unfold in the sunlight In your hour
Be like the dew That waters the ground When you’re through
Be like the spring And at midday noon
Let summer sing - Joshua Fryfogle, “Let Summer Sing”
Contributed by Katherine Baker
Tiger, beauty blazing steady, trembling muscles, poised and ready. Summoned forth, a predator’s might, orbs of flaming yellow ignite.
Secreting tips hang from swift jaws, blurred, hidden lines, a stalker’s crawl. Hunger pursues a bounding charge, surrendering a roam once large.
O what awesome beauty savage, when ravager becomes the ravaged!
A creature scarred, yet life remains, INEVITABLE - now but vain.
Spreading shadows, themselves explain, cruel be beauty, for beauty pains.
Contributed by Katherine Baker
Perhaps in the large, regal oak, or in a volcano’s rising smoke, the story of the earth comes forth, heralding events long untold, as each essence strives to be heard, to loudly declare in the most splendid words, so the wind sends the tale afar, and seas roar to little bright stars, the saga, our sun, spreads to warm, as our galaxy proclaims it’s form, so much more than the particular me, when the universe proclaims, universally.
Contributed by Richard Estelle, Palmer Museum of History & Art
Folks who have travelled to Whittier, Alaska, whether by train or car, did so by way of the “Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel”, so named for the man who designed and located that unique approach to the town. Folks who ride the Alaska Railroad train between Seward and Fairbanks do so over tracks largely located and surveyed by Anton Anderson. Those who visit the Palmer Community Center today travel among the Colony-era buildings and streets also located according to the architect’s plan by Anton Anderson and his survey crew.
Anton Albert Andrew Anderson was, by all accounts, a remarkable man. Born in 1892 in New Zealand of Swedish and Irish heritage, he immigrated to Washington State in 1914, where he became a civil engineer and surveyor. In 1916, he came to Anchorage to work for the Alaska Engineering Commission as an engineer during early construction of the Alaska Railroad, engineering and surveying much of the line, the bridges and buildings between Seward and Fairbanks as well as laying out the original Anchorage townsite. He no doubt played a principal role in designing and locating the railroad’s Matanuska branch line extending from its junction at the community of Matanuska to the coalfields of Chickaloon, establishing the rail access that would later play such an important role in locating and establishing the Matanuska Colony Project.
Following construction of the railroad,
Anderson was involved in numerous other major projects, including construction of the first Eklutna hydroelectric power project below Eklutna Lake which included dams, tunnel and penstock, powerhouse and substations to provide electricity to Anchorage by 1930. Other major engineering and surveying activity took him throughout the Territory including leading involvement in locating and designing the two rail tunnels leading to Whittier, Whitter’s port facilities and the Hodge building (now Begich Towers), to open that port to rail access in 1943. He was significantly involved in construction of the Alaska Highway, the Richardson
and Glenn Highways, the Haines Cutoff and the Tok Extension. He supervised the relocation of the railroad along Turnagain Arm when the adjacent Seward Highway was constructed.
When the Matanuska Colony Project was initiated, resettling Midwestern farm families in the Matanuska Valley in 1935, a whole new town was required. A major factor influencing the location of that town was proximity to good access for delivery of all the people, goods and equipment required to form a town from its beginning. The choice was to locate adjacent to the rail line Anderson likely identified through the
Matanuska Valley almost twenty years before. Anderson was on the Colony project scene early, leading his survey crew in converting the architect’s vision for the new town into specific locations on the ground so men could quickly begin building the required structures for the new town.
Anderson went on to serve on the Anchorage City Council and as Mayor from 1956 to 1958. He passed away in 1960, leaving behind a remarkable legacy of enduring infrastructure for the people of Alaska, and a unique contribution to the community of Palmer.
Photos in the museum’s Anton Anderson collection indicate that Anton, his wife Alma and daughters, Jean and Patricia, came to the new Palmer site in 1935. (Their third daughter, Shelby, was born the following year in Palmer.) Some of those photos show the townsite when it was little more than a partially developed homestead brush field.
This month’s “Photo of The Month”, produced by Hewitt’s Photo Shop of Anchorage, shows Anderson and his survey team at their office tent in Palmer in 1936. They are identified, from the left, as Bill Cook, Bob Abernathy, Chief Engineer Anton Anderson, Oliver Kola, a man not yet identified, and Jack O’Malley.
Note: Some information for the above was taken from Wikipedia and from Bruce Parham, “Anderson, Anton A.,” Cook Inlet Historical Society, “Legends and Legacies, Anchorage, 1910-1940.”
Contributed by Terry Phillips, Valley Fine Arts Association
Terry Phillips will be the featured artist for the month of June at Kiladi Bros. in Wasilla.
Terry has been an active member of the Valley Fine Arts Association since 2011. She has held several positions on the board and currently serves as a director. Her artwork will include works in oils and acrylics.
Stop by Kaladis, and enjoy a cuppa and view the art display.
Contributed by Matt Rowley
Save the date! The Mat-Su Summer Festival is happening at Alaska Raceway Park in Butte the weekend of June 25th – 27th!
This family-friendly festival is the event you’ve been waiting for to score great stuff from your favorite vendors, to dine from Alaska’s gourmet food trucks, to enjoy wild carnival rides with your kids, and to relax with a beer –all in the great outdoors while listening to the best local music talent that Alaska has to offer.
As you may recall, the Mat-Su Fall Festival appeared spontaneously for the very first time last August. Well, due to overwhelming demand, the festival is back, in June rather than August. Only the name has changed, from “Fall” to “Summer,” and the festival will be even bigger and better than ever. This year, we are welcoming a great selection of carnival rides, and there will be on-site camping for those who want to make it a fun, food, beer, carnival, camping, music, festival weekend! Information and tickets are online at matsuevents.com. See you there!
