Buying Local – Supporting Tok Business

Image by dawnzy58 via Flickr

I’m a firm believer in buying local and giving my hard-earned money to hard-working businesses and service providers in my own community. The fact that this is one of my “life philosophies” seems to have been missed by a recent comment on this blog where I was chastised by one of those “brave” anonymous blog trolls who love to criticize others without offering any valuable insights or information.

Did you know we have our VERY OWN rv Repair business here in tok (several to be exact) and one i know of gives a LOCAL DISCOUNT. He can repair just about anything on an RV, including the water systems, which happens to be his specialty. (Black grey and potable). Shamefull, really, to take your business somewhere other than local when the economy could so clearly use the boost. Still promoting Tok? Doesn’t sound like it.

It all started when I mentioned we were bringing our RV and bikes to Fairbanks to be repaired. After asking around and looking around the community for an RV repair shop that was open this early in the season and that repaired RV flooring, we were directed to Fairbanks and other towns even further away.

The Piano in Tok

A Steinway Grand Piano will be delivered to Tok in May. According to our trusty Mukluk News (Tok’s 2x a month paper), on May 7th, there’ll be a concert at Faith Chapel at 7pm to debut the concert-level instrument. Refreshments will be served during intermission. Musical fare will include classical, jazz and gospel.

This piano arriving in Tok is huge news. I heard about the donation of the piano to the church months ago and told my girlfriend about it. She’s the Executive Director of Sitka Summer Music Festival.

Her eyes opened wide when she heard which piano was actually being delivered. Apparently, there are only a handful of pianos of this quality – the Steinway Concert Grand Model D – in all of Alaska. Once again, Tok tramples the perception that “nothing happens” in rural Alaska communities. The presence of this superior instrument in Tok could attract amazing talent to the community so we might be hearing announcements of several stellar concerts in the near future.

The Mukluk also says there’s be several concerts presented at Tok School on May 6, then in the evening, adults who are pianists can take the Steinway for a test drive.

What do YOU hope a piano of this caliber brings to Tok?

Tonight! Eastern Tanana Area Plan-Public Scoping Meeting 6:30pm

From the online public notice:

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has initiated the development of the Eastern Tanana Area Plan (ETAP). The existing area plan within the ETAP boundary, the Tanana Basin Area Plan (TBAP), is dated and needs revising to account for changes in land ownership; to reflect the current and anticipated economic, social and environmental conditions in the area; and to provide a sufficient land-base for the development and conservation of the state’s natural resources.

Imagination Library Kickoff a Success!

We signed up several dozen kids from our community to take part in the Imagination Library of Tok and Tanacross. We’ll also have a web site up soon for the project so stay tuned!

Here are some scenes from last Saturday at the Tok School Library. Special thanks to all the parents for giving us permission to publish pictures of their kids. A great time was had by all. The theme? Trains (as if you couldn’t guess).

More photos to come.

And if you know a child under 5 years of age in our area, please let them know about this project that will deliver – for FREE – an age-appropriate book per month to encourage reading.

Sign Up to Receive Organic Produce in Tok

UPDATE: Francine from the General Store has generously offered to take over the Full Circle Farm arrangements and offer her store as the pick up location. So convenient!

Interested in ordering boxes of fresh, organic produce? Full Circle Farm produce is coming to Tok.

Full Circle Farm offers three sizes of produce boxes to members. Each box regardless of size will have between 12-14 standard items and 6-8 substitution options. Members are allowed to make up to 5 substitutions per box.

Exact pricing on boxes delivered to Tok is to be determined. (To give you an idea, prices for boxes delivered to Anchorage are $40 small, $50.25 medium, and $59.50 large).

Orders will be delivered every other week to the Johnson residence on Discovery (directions provided to everyone who signs up). Get your fruits and veggies!

For more information, contact Francine at the General Store.

Scenes from Tok Happenings

Thanks to folks in Tok for furnishing this blog with snapshots from recent Tok Happenings…

Pinewood Derby, photos by Joel Krise

On Saturday, March 7 Tok Assembly of God hosted a Pinewood Derby Car Race. The race was held in the Tok School multipurpose room and those that attended had a fun time watching the races and cheering for their favorite cars! A lot of work went into the measuring, carving and painting of the  miniature Derby Cars as a precise weight limit needed to be met in order to qualify. There were many styles of car designs the most memorable being a little red wagon complete with the handle, a detailed Corvette, a coffin and a shark with tail and fin! Those from the younger set were brightly painted and 2 were shining proudly covered in glitter! The adults showed their talent as well with a Hawiian themed truck and a snowflake covered car! Congratulations to all who participated and thanks to all who judged and ran the timer. A good time was had by all and we are looking forward to another race in the near future! Below are the results of the Pinewod Derby!

About 50 folks showed up at Fast Eddy’s for the April 3 evening concert of Small Potatoes. Here are a few snapshots courtesy of Cole Johnson.

Were you there, too? Would you like to submit photos? We’d love to share them and give you credit. Send them to the email on this blog. Thanks!

Tok Happenings: Save the Dates!

So much going on in Tok, so little time to get to it all. But here are two things coming up – one of them tomorrow! Hope to see you out and about. The weather is beautiful today!

April 11, 2009 (Saturday) – Imagination Library for Tok & Tanacross Kick-off event
At the Tok School Library
10:30am-12:30pm
*Come register your child between the ages of birth to 5 so that he/she can receive a free book by mail each month!
*Train activities set up for young children to do and explore
*There will be door prizes, snacks and lots of fun to be had by all.

More info about Imagination Library here.

May 16, 2009 (Saturday) – Birding Festival
Where: Tetlin NWR-Tok
Time: 8:30am-3:00pm

Join us for the 8th annual Upper Tanana Valley Migratory Bird Festival. The day begins with a morning family bird watching trip followed by a bird banding demonstration. In conjunction with this year’s theme “Celebrating Birds in Culture”, grade school students will be presenting skits, puppet shows and artwork related to the Athabascan culture and cultures around world. As in previous years, there will be the Young Naturalist and Junior Duck Stamp Art Contests. These indoor presentations will be at the Tok Mainstreet Visitor Center. From 1-3 pm, there will be outdoor Family Fun Activities at the adjacent park. Festival activities are aimed at raising the awareness of bird conservation and participation in family outdoor recreation. For more information and to sign up for the bird watching trip, contact the Tetlin Refuge at 883-5312.

Know of other local happenings? Let us know so we can help get the word out!

Tyson Johnson, Snowmachine Racer!

Tyson Johnson/IronDog champion

Tyson Johnson recently placed 2nd in the IronDog race. Yes, Tyson has a Tok connection – his brother and sister-in-law live here! Congrats to Tyson and his racing partner Tyler Aklestad for their impressive finish.

WHO: Tyson Johnson, 29
IRONDOG PARTNER: Tyler Aklestad, 23
LOCATION: Tyson - Eagle River;  Tyler – Wasilla

Q: What kind of equipment do you ride for the race?

We ride Ski Doo mxzx machines with the new for this year 600 E-Tec motor.

Q: How long have you been doing this race and why do you do it?

I have done this race 11 times and started in 1997 when I was 17 years old. I started out just doing it for the experience and thought it would be fun but turned out it was something I was good at and (it) keeps me occupied all winter.

Fiber Optic Coming to Tok?

Image via Wikipedia

A little birdie told me a few months back that Tok would be getting fiber optic as early as the Fall. Well, now rumor has it that it may be much sooner – like sometime in the next few months!

Anyone who has been following my quest for high speed – and affordable – Internet in rural Alaska knows that “high speed” and “affordable Internet” are not usually used around these parts. I’m currently paying close to $200 for my monthly Internet access, 512k up and down, 10Gig bandwidth allowance, $30 each Gig over. (Waiting for your eyes to pop open and jaw to drop. There it goes.)

I got a peek at some numbers for the new service that will bring Tok onto the Information Superhighway instead of the rural side road and my own eyes popped open and jaw dropped. For the same connection speed, the Gig bandwidth allowance is doubled and the price is about one-fourth of what I pay now! Heck, I could afford the truly high speed connection at those rates.

Imagination Library coming to Tok & Tanacross

Here’s the program I mentioned recently in this blog. My company social media marketing company Conversify is making a cash donation to the project, and I’m enrolling my 2-year-old. This is reprinted with permission from Carrie Beeman and originally appeared in the latest Mukluk News.

The Imagination Library is coming to Tok & Tanacross. With recent grants from the Rasmuson Foundation, The CIRI Foundation, and ConocoPhillips, Best Beginnings has provided matching funds to help start an Imagination Library in the communities of Tok & Tanacross.

Attend the KickOff Event!

All parents of young children living in Tok & Tanacross are encouraged to sign-up their child during the kick-off event on Saturday 4/11/09 at the Tok School Library. Drop by anytime between 10:30am-12:30pm. The theme of our event is trains. From The Little Engine That Could to Thomas The Tank Engine, there will be many activities set for young children to do and explore. In addition there will be door prizes and snacks, so mark you calendars! Volunteers are also welcome.

What is an Imagination Library you may wonder? The Imagination Library was created by the musician and actor Dolly Parton in 1996 as an effort to foster a love of reading among preschool children and their families. She did this by insuring that every child in her home community in Tennessee would have books. Reading with young children is proven to be the single most important thing parents can do to ensure their children’s success in school.

How the Imagination Library works is that each child enrolled in participating communities receives a free book in the mail every month. This means all the children in living Tok & Tanacross are now eligible from birth until their 5th birthday, allowing a child to create a home library with a total of sixty books. With the arrival of every child’s first book, the classic The Little Engine That Could every child can now experience the joy of finding their very own book in their mailbox. These moments continue each month until the very last month in the program they receive Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come. All the books in between are age appropriate and chosen by experts. They are grouped by the year the child was born.

Donations support the Imagination Library, so there is no charge to families.

If you are interested in helping with Imagination Library or participating, please leave comments here and I’ll make sure Carrie or one of us gets back to you (if you don’t already know how to reach her directly)!