Alaska Day Festival Committee & Sitka Health Summit at Chamber Luncheon

Weekly luncheons are held every Wednesday at noon. Enjoy great food, dynamic speakers, and exciting networking opportunities. Chamber luncheons are open to the public. Chamber members receive special member-only pricing.

Executive Lunch Sponsor
TBD
Upgrade to the Executive Lunch and receive VIP treatment including cookies and special prize drawings.

Speaker
Elaine Strelow
Doug Osborne & Anthony Treas

Presentation
Elaine Strelow will share the event calendar and speak briefly on the Alaska Day Festivities, followed by Doug Osborne who will present on the Sitka Health Summit.

Biography
Elaine -Alaska Day Festival annually commemorates the Purchase Transfer of Russian claim of Alaska to the United States of America at Sitka on October 18, 1867.  
 An organized group formed more than 65 years ago for the 1949 unveiling of the prospector statue on Sitka Pioneers’ Home lawn.  Efforts by Alaska Day Committee members increased leading up to the 1967 Centennial year and the opening of Sitka’s new community center and repository for its historical records and artifacts. 
 Alaska Day Festival has grown to a week-long celebration of the diversity of cultures and historical perspectives of our people.  From its beginnings, Alaska Day Festival has existed because of the passions of its numerous volunteers.
 The theme for 2016 is “Nursing in the Last Frontier”, calling attention to traditional Native healing practices, the Russian era, and more modern times in Alaska medicine including the epidemics of the 1940s and more recent years.

 Doug graduated from Colorado State University with a Bachelor in Social Work in 1995 and then came to Alaska as a VISTA volunteer.   He worked as the Violence Free Schools project coordinator at a Domestic Violence shelter in Ketchikan for 3 years and then spent a year teaching in Japan.  He came back to Alaska, got married, and went to Alaska Pacific University for graduate school where he studied Health and Education.   My lovely wife Jami and I decided to pick a good place to live and then pick jobs. We decided that Sitka had the right mix of great things and moved here in 2003 to have and raise our daughter Darby who is currently enjoying life in the 7^th grade.   Jami has her own business working as a Licensed Professional counselor in town.
 During my decade in SEARHC’s Health Promotion department I was able to work with folks all over Southeast Alaska doing a wide variety of activities including program planning and evaluation.   For the past ten years I’ve also  had the good fortune to work on the Sitka Health Summit which is where great ideas get turned into goals.    The Choose Respect mural, the Farmers Market, the award winning Fish to Schools Project, and bike project that led to Sitka being the first community in Alaska to receive the Bicycle Friendly Community award all started at the Summit.

 Currently Doug works as the Director of Health Promotion  at Sitka Community Hospital, the chair of the City’s Health Needs and Human Services commission and the chair of the Sitka Health Summit Coalition. 
 

Menu
Fish & Chips,Veggies, Salad Bar