Thank you for continued support
Cook Inletkeeper extends sincere thanks to the City of Homer Grants Program, administered by the Homer Foundation, for its continued investment in and support of local nonprofit organizations. This grant helps support Cook Inletkeeper’s annual electronics recycling event in Homer, a service that made a tangible impact in 2025 by diverting over 16,000 pounds of electronic waste from the Homer landfill and more than 35,000 lbs. across the peninsula. This support allows our community to responsibly manage electronic waste, protecting salmon habitat and local waterways. We are grateful to the City of Homer for its commitment to this program and to the Homer Foundation for stewarding these funds to organizations working on the ground. Community members are encouraged to mark their calendars for this year’s annual electronics recycling event, taking place May 2 in Homer.
Loren Barrett, Co-Executive Director
Cook Inletkeeper
Search and rescue group sees support
This last year the Friends of Kachemak Bay State Parks created the Kachemak Bay Search and Rescue organization, a volunteer search and rescue team. Our focus area is that of Kachemak Bay State Parks, but we plan to support the surrounding communities when needed and available.
We completed our initial four-day training the first weekend of February at the Kachemak Emergency Services station (next to McNeil Canyon) with instructors from Anchorage and the Mat-Su area. Eighteen participants completed the full training which included practical scenarios with K9 dog teams and covered a range of topics from lost person behavior, wilderness first aid, search techniques, mapping, and standard emergency response systems.
We would like to recognize all the people who attended the program and who helped out. You students are extremely talented, and the Kachemak Fire Station were very kind and generous hosts! It is always refreshing to see such skills among our friends. We would also like to thank the Homer Foundation for providing a $5,000 grant that will allow us to buy search and rescue gear for the students. As always, the Homer Foundation is essential to the support of Homer.
Andy Haas
Homer
Debating masculinity
Last week a letter suggested that Alex Pretti, the protester shot by ICE agents on Jan. 24 in Minneapolis, chose wisely and manifested admirable masculinity by spontaneously interfering with an ICE agent in order to protect a very roughly-handled female protester. I disagree; Mr. Pretti was a very conflicted man. Bold masculinity without wisdom makes for a walking time-bomb. In fact, the letter listed with disdain several such individuals. Arguably, Mr. Pretti fits into that category, and that makes him a doubtful role model. Although his legacy will be that of a compassionate, dedicated nurse with strong protective instincts he was also a man consumed with rage and hatred, spitting and cursing at ICE agents and kicking out their car’s taillights in a previous confrontation. In a law enforcement environment the coin of the realm is force; being a Good Samaritan is irrelevant. Alex Pretti’s unwise decision to improperly and probably illegally physically interfere with ICE while packing a firearm was dangerously confrontational and indirectly led to his death from their overwhelming reactive force during a chaotic scuffle.
Larry Slone
Homer
