May 08, 2010
Hi everyone!
We feel so blessed and thankful for your prayers and support. We're off on a great adventure! I just loved what a fifth grade boy told me. "Guitar is an 'everybody sport.' Everybody can play guitar!" We're just finishing visiting four villages--Tanana, Beaver, Minto, and Arctic Village in this gorgeous spring weather!! We've been having concerts and dances outside. The kids are so excited--and teachers and communities, too! Their enthusiasm is contagious!! We can see that this program makes real positive changes in the kids and the community! As Pete Peter said after his trip to Minto, “The students from preschool to high school were absolutely fabulous because they wanted to learn. They kept saying, ‘This guitar is easy!’”
We're looking forward to the Fairbanks Bluegrass Camp for Kids June 21-25 (check with Pete Bowers 455-6528 or the Fairbanks Folk Festival Web Site).
Our summer camps last year focused on trying to help kids from the flooded communities along the Yukon. The first week in June, we held a camp at St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Fairbanks for 45 flood evacuees and their friends. A couple weeks later, I helped chaperone Tanana kids attending the Bearfoot Bluegrass Camp for Kids in Fairbanks. Besides learning lots of tunes, being in bands, and square dancing—the kids toured the Calypso Organic Farm and got to hold the baby sheep. That same week, Pete Peter was teaching music up in Chalkyitsik at the Rev. David Salmon Arts and Culture Gathering with Virgil Titus, John Christian, Walter Newman, Albert Gilbert, Jr., and Chester Fields. Earlier, Pete went up to Arctic Village to help teach music with the Rev. Trimble Gilbert, Walter Newman, and Albert Gilbert, Sr. at the Gwitch’in Gathering. Then Pete Peter and his son Lewis taught music and vacation bible school in Navajoland with the Rev. Duncan Burns and his youth group from Kingston, New York. And I was assigned to do music camps in Hawaii for three weeks... What a rough life!
At the end of July, Pete Peter, Vicki Salmon, and I taught music and art for kids in Eagle which was heavily damaged by the flood. We had a very moving memorial service on the banks of the Yukon at the site of their church which was totally washed away. There were tears as people thought of what the church had meant to them--and all that they had lost... As well as thanksgivings that no one died--and that all summer their town was inundated with volunteers that "just came to help!" The square dances and the kids' camp were so popular, that we were invited back for a Labor Day Weekend Volunteer Appreciation Dance and student concert! And all the high school students decided to play guitar, fiddle, bass, or mandolin as part of a regular Friday afternoon 4H program!
Pete Peter and I taught music in Tanana at the end of September. We are amazed at what great young musicians the students are becoming!
Pete, Bill Stevens, and the Rev. Bella Jean Savino have been teaching in Fairbanks with a Saturday afternoon Athabascan Fiddle Dance and guitar/fiddle instruction for kids at St. Matthews Episcopal Church.
In December, we traveled to Chalkyitsik, Tanana, Nulato, and Beaver. Then we were in Arctic Village and Stevens Village after the first of the year...
We are also happy to report that the Bearfoot Band’s latest CD, “Doors and Windows, “ was listed as Number 1 on Billboard Magazine’s Bluegrass Charts in mid-May 2009. This Alaskan band www.bearfootband.com came out of the Cordova 4H Music Camp 11 years ago when they were 14-17 years old. Their guitar player, Mike Mickelson has traveled with Dancing with the Spirit to many of the villages—and Bearfoot has done 80 Bluegrass Camps for Kids. We’re hoping that many villages will soon have bands like these to provide music and camps for the younger kids… …
We are so grateful for your continuing prayers and support. Masik ‘cho and Ana bassee! Send contributions to Dancing with the Spirit, Episcopal Diocese of Alaska, 1205 Denali Way, Fairbanks, Alaska 99701. We can also use small (or large) items for door prizes for the community dances. We would love to have some video recording equipment to record the songs the elders sing, so please let us know if you can help.
For more information contact Shirley Lee or the Rev. Ginny Doctor at the Diocesan Office 907-452-3040, the Rev. Belle Mickelson, 907-424-5143 bellemickelson@gmail.com or on her NEW FAIRBANKS CELL 907-388-3347 or Pete Peter 907-456-8215.
Love and blessings,
Belle
View previous news letters:
February 11, 2009
November 25, 2008
August 14, 2008
May 25, 2008
