Alaska Living

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Aaron

I just got a call that my former student (and ski program kid) Aaron from Akiak has taken his own life. His body was found behind the school. Aaron was another one of my favorite kids. Seemingly always happy, upbeat, smart and had a great sense of humor. He had flown in to Anchorage in December to participate in the State Volleyball Championship, and I went to support the Akiak kids. When I saw Aaron he had a huge smile on his face and he ran up to me to give me a hug. We laughed and joked with each other for the 3 days of the tournament. Aaron was my assistant the first year we brought the ski program to Akiak because his arm was in a cast. He rode on the back of my snowmachine for the entire season and watched for the safety of the students who were skiing.

A story we always laughed about is that one time he was riding with another teacher "Stacy" while I was teaching her to do spins on the ice with her snowgo. We were having a great time when Stacy hit a patch of hard snow and slowly rolled her snowgo with Aaron on the back end. They both went flying and landed on the ice laughing. We gave Aaron an ice cream sunday to bribe him not to tell anyone (as a joke). When I saw him in December the first thing he asked was "so you going to buy me an ice cream sunday" "smile"

The next two years afterward, Aaron was apart of my ski team that traveled to Alyeska Ski Resort. He was a wonderful kid, an amazing skier, and really could have done anything with his life. I loved him and really feel lucky to have had the time I did with him. Aaron had just graduated from High School this spring.

I don't know what it is about the summer time and our kids feeling so hopeless that they take their own lives. Aaron is my 9th student (in 9 years of teaching to die. 8 from suicide, all happened in the summer). The factors I feel that are involved are:
1). Lack of positive activity for kids in the bush during the summer
2). Lack of support (all teachers are traveling out of the villages in the summer)
3) Disfunction at home.
4). Lack of hope for the future. Opportunities are there but they don't see them. (More students need programs like what my district is offering; positive activity, summer opportunities for kids, service learning, career development, leadership training--long term support). If Aaron would have been with Chugach or one of our partner districts in the state, we could have helped him develop a plan for his future, helped him reach his dreams, offered Excell and summer internships and been there for long term support. Sadly, our program (doesn't yet) reach all the kids in the state.

I'm very proud to be with Chugach, a family of people who really believe in doing "What's Best For Kids" throughout the state, I just wish we could reach every kid. We are trying. Our program is expanding every year. All I can do is try to support my former students the best I can (which hasn't been enough) and pray for the kids that we can't get to fast enough. I will really miss Aaron. The kids of Akiak will have a hard year dealing with this, please pray for them. I love those kids.
I think I need to revamp the ski outreach, obviously. This is my second skier to suicide and I lost Minnie to illness. Not the results I'm looking for.

Tom loved Aaron too...again, I hope he's loving them on the other side.

Tough Year.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Nancy Lakes Outdoor Leadership Trip

Excell is a month long summer program that our school district offers to help rural students (from around the state) meet standards, get help to pass the HSQE, get service learning and career development experience, obtain national trade certificates/college credit, and learn leadership skills that will help them in their future. This is my third summer teaching the camp and the first time I went on an outdoor leadership trip with the students. It was a tough one on the students as it rained the whole weekend. The objective was to have the students lead us through an 7 hour loop trail with 13 lakes and 13 portages (kids carried their boats through long portages in the mud. They had to work as a team to help those who struggled, they had to learn map skills, keep their spirits up, ration their food, keep track of time, and had to successfully deal with any challenges along the way.)..This group of kids did an awesome job and really impressed us. We didn't hear any complaining, saw lots of teamwork, they were respectful of each other and throughout the whole weekend had positive attitudes. Students set goals for themselves before the trip and discussed afterwards if they met those goals. A requirement was also that every student had to teach a (well planned out) lesson (their choice) to the group sometime during the trip.