Letters to the editor

Published 5:30 am Thursday, June 4, 2026

Making sure no one goes to school hungry

On behalf of the Homer Community Food Pantry, we’d like to thank the Youth Advisory Committee for awarding HCFP $5,000 for our High School Foods Program, in which we address food insecurity. Winter Marshall Allen, who serves as the intensive needs coordinator, acknowledged that our support provides for 78-90 different students.

This number represents, not just meals, but dignity, stability and the opportunity for students to focus on learning, rather than hunger. When her students help at the pantry, it fosters pride, belonging and civic engagement. Through our partnership with HCFP, students in our Intensive Needs Programs are able to participate in meaningful community-based instruction by helping at the pantry.

Tina Seaton is the coordinator of the Girl Scout Backpack Program. HCFP provides food for weekend backpacks that are available to students who are couch surfing or living outside of their home. They fill the backpacks and students take them as needed.

Every year during our Fall Harvesting Fundraiser when students deliver food, we generally give them a tour of our facility and put them to work sorting their food into various crates so we can then distribute to our clients. Our goal is to teach them at a young age the importance of giving and the pride that they personally feel in having contributed to those in need.

We also have a Community Free Fridge that several students utilize after school and on weekends. It’s also a valuable resource for students to go to over the summer. We stock this twice a day, seven days a week.

The grant will allow us to carry on this valuable program into the next school year. We deliver food supplies every two weeks to the high school as well as the backpack program as needed. I’m hearing from more and more teachers that students are coming to school hungry. We so appreciate HCFP as we work to provide food for those in need.

So that none may go hungry.

Deb Schmidt

HCFP Board Member

Grant helps protect land for future

Kachemak Heritage Land Trust (KHLT) would like to thank the City of Homer for the grant support we received this spring as administered through the Homer Foundation. This funding will help KHLT continue to protect land on the Kenai Peninsula for future generations to enjoy. We are honored to be part of our supportive and vibrant community. Thank you, City of Homer!

Marie McCarty

Executive Director

Scholarship has made a huge difference

I am writing to sincerely thank the Homer Foundation and the Nikki Geragotelis (Fry) Memorial Scholarship Committee for supporting my education. As a student from Homer who will be attending Washington State University and pursuing a dual major in Psychology and Criminology, this scholarship has made a huge difference in helping me afford college and focus on my studies.

Receiving this scholarship means a lot to me. Beyond the financial support, it reminds me that my community believes in me and the goals I am working toward. Knowing that I have that support motivates me to work hard and make the most of the opportunities I have been given.

Growing up in Homer has shaped who I am and the values I carry with me. My interest in psychology and criminology comes from wanting to better understand people, the challenges they face, and how communities can support positive change. Through my education, I hope to gain the knowledge and skills needed to make a meaningful impact in the lives of others.

I am incredibly grateful to the donors and committee members who make scholarships like this possible. Your generosity helps students pursue their goals and creates opportunities that might not otherwise be available. Thank you for investing in my future and in the future of students throughout our community.

Keagan Niebuhr

Re: Artist in Schools Residency at Nanwalek School, April 2026

Every spring, Nanwalek School’s SeaWeek brings our whole community together around the ocean, the tides, and the ecosystems that have sustained our Sugpiaq people for generations. This year, it also brought back someone who has become part of our school’s story in a way we did not expect.

Artist Kim McNett first visited Nanwalek in spring 2025 through the Artist in Schools program run by the Bunnell Street Arts Center. That week, our village experienced a tragic loss. Most outside partners were unable to continue their programming. Kim stayed. She adapted her teaching, opened her classroom to our Elders, and helped our children process grief through art. She didn’t have to do any of that. She did it anyway.

This April, she returned. And our students noticed.

This year’s residency was an ambitious week of visual arts fundamentals: graphite drawing on Day 1, experimental watercolor on Day 2, mindful mandalas and radial design on Day 3, botanical oil pastel on Day 4, and origami and paper sculpture to close out the week on Day 5. Kim designed separate activities for each grade band—K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12—so every student, from our youngest kindergartners to our graduating seniors, made meaningful art all week long.

On Wednesday, April 8—Holy Week in our village—Kim hosted something different from a typical showcase. Rather than a public display of finished work, she held a teacher retreat, inviting staff to sit down and make art themselves, with community members welcome to join. It was quieter than a celebration. It fit the week.

The Artist in Schools program is made possible through the partnership of the Bunnell Street Arts Center and funding from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Performance Network, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, The Homer Foundation, and the Rasmuson Foundation. These organizations ensure that professional arts education reaches Alaska communities that are off the road system and over the water—places like ours.

To Kim McNett, and to everyone who supports this program: thank you for showing up. And for coming back.

Penny Bearden-Brown

Principal, Nanwalek School