SHARING FOOD AND ENHANCING PARTNERSHIPS The Akutan Corporation and the St. George Monte worked with Grant to assist with the Tanaq Corporation both have some- cost of transporting the 500lbs of meat thing that most other Tribal entities do each direction. not have and find difficult to get: fresh Getting the first bull harvested meat! Akutan Corp owns a herd of cat- was the easy part. Monte and Richard tle on Akun Island and Tanaq Corp Stepetin went to Akun in the Akutan owns a herd of Reindeer. Corp Skiff and in 3 hours they were able Under the planning of VPSO to complete the round trip, harvest the Sgt. Monte Chitty of Akutan and VPSO bull and transport it back to Aku- Joseph Chitty of St. George, there has tan. Then the meat was hung in a pro- been a planned meat exchange between tected shed where the temperature was the two tribal entities. The plan originat- monitored. God blessed them and every- ed from VPSO Sgt. Monte Chitty planning to thing worked out just right. After four days of visit his son in St. George to go hunting for a hanging and another four days of processing, reindeer. Monte had shared with a few people this proved to be a lot of hard work. The first in Akutan his plan to visit his son and hunt and bull of the exchange is now in the freezer cut some expressed how they would enjoy some and packaged in 1.5lb packages. reindeer meat themselves. That sparked the One more bull to go, then the idea of an exchange. trip to St. George and it all starts over! Monte began by making the contact with the two Corporations. He suggested that ~INSIDE~ President’s Message ........................................ 2 it be a 500lb exchange of beef for rein- Youth Services ................................................. 7 deer. Both villages seemed to be really excited about the idea. Then came the matter of the Artist Highlight: Teresa Smith ...................... 8 logistics. Monte planned to harvest two bulls Unanga Paint Night ...................................... 9 from Akun fully process package and freeze the Aleut Assurance............................................... 9 meat prior to going to St.George. Planning and Behavioral Health Services .......................... 10 proper timing is very important for the Head Start Program ...................................... 11 meat. There is hanging to age the beef, while Iqya & Banya Build in Unalaska ............... 11 temperature must be carefully observed, pro- Recommended Reading ............................... 12 cessing, and packaging. Most people don’t re- Clinic Projects ................................................ 12 alize how many vacuum seal bags it takes to ANTHC Regional Liason ............................ 13 package 1000lbs of meat! COVID Vaccine Update ............................. 14 Then there’s the problem of storing the Honoring Unanga Soldiers ........................ 16 meat until shipping, how do you ship it, etc.? Different ways to support APIA ................ 17 Trident Seafood’s agreed to store the beef until Unanga Village of Cold Bay ...................... 17 time of travel in their huge factory freezer. NAAF Program Scholarships Available .... 18 APIA Board of Directors ............................ 20 2 Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By Dimitri Philemonof, President/CEO monitoring symptoms, re-testing, contact This has been a unique year to say the least. tracing and in some cases, brief office The APIA staff and management have worked closures. very hard to continue providing services to the Since September 1st, we have had 12 region and our people while employees noted as close contacts navigating the COVID-19 to positive cases. So far, all but two pandemic. We hope you all have have successfully completed their 14 come through the year healthy -day quarantine period and are now and safe. back to work. We have had seven employees test positive. Five have COVID-19 Response Update completed the self-isolation period, The virus became a world tested negative and returned to pandemic on March 11th and the work. The other two staff are president mandated a 15-day currently in self-isolation period and national shutdown on March must retest negative before coming 16th. Since that time, we have to work. Our office hours continue been following local mandates with several as normal 8a – 4:30p Monday office closures and our staff working with some through Friday. time on site and tele-work status. Our clinics In addition to on site and/or tele-work have remained open for health care services schedules; staff are staggering shifts to assist during this time. We offer services via video with social distancing. Contacts with clients, and telephone platforms. All our clinics have vendors and meetings continue to be done rapid testing available. Our staff are making telephonically. check-in calls to Elders and other patients. Our VPSOs are serving a front-line role in the Funding Update The president signed a health screening of those traveling to their continuing resolution effective through communities. Feel free to reach out to Jessica December 11th. We have closed out our FY Mata Rukovishnikoff for further detail on our 2020 grants. Our rates for FY 2021 are lower clinics. You may check the top of our website than the FY 2020 rates, which is in line with for the webpage link named “APIA Cares: Stay the pattern over the past several years. This is Safe” for general information about our primarily a function of keeping our operations, see some engaging graphics on administrative costs stable while growing the handwashing, wearing masks, and social number of grants and programs we separation. We will keep the page current as manage. We have been able to use COVID we continue to move through this time. funds to purchase vehicles including new trucks for the health clinics in Atka and Anchorage Office COVID Case Protocols Unalaska. Since the start of the pandemic, we We continue to monitor the spread of the virus have been able to secure many new and make necessary adjustments to our grants. We have 26 different COVID funding operations. Following the CDC guidelines, we for a total of $6,465,523. We also were put protocols in place to ensure the safety of awarded 8 other non-COVID grants for a total our staff and clients. These include testing, of $5,322,357. The total new funding awarded this year is $11,787,880. Our draft financials WINTER 2020/2021 3 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE for FY20 are showing total expenditures of approximately $58 million. GCI will invest just over $21M. Our estimated program $33 million of its own capital to pay for project expenditures for FY21 is expected to be about costs not covered by the USDA ReConnect $25-$26M. With the additional funding, the grant. The AU-Aleutians Fiber Project will FY20 amount is nearly the highest in 10 years dramatically improve the delivery of a wide and FY21 is expected to be even higher. range of services of critical importance to business, government, education, and St. George Tribal Representative healthcare. Speakers on the call were GCI Chris Merculief called to let me know that he CEO Ron Duncan, GCI President and COO would not be running for the St. George Greg Chapados, and special guests including Tribal Council this year. Later, I spoke with City of Unalaska Mayor Vincent Tutiakof, U.S. Chris and Sally when she stated she was also Senator Dan Sullivan, State Representative resigning as the Administrator for the Tribe. They want to live in Anchorage to be close to Edgmon, as well as recognition of State their children and grandchildren. Chris served Senator Hoffman’s supportive efforts. We as our Vice Chair and our Board Health have been working alongside others, including Committee Chair. We thank Chris for his 16 the A-Team, on this project. We have shared years of service on the Board. The St. George the critical need of increased broadband Tribe appointed Mark Merculief Jr. as the St. capacity and speed to our U.S. Delegation and George Representative for the APIA Board. State Legislature. It is so nice to see this We welcome Mark to the Board! project coming to fruition. Qawalangin Tribal Representative USDA Regional Food Systems Partnership Chris Price, with the Qawalangin Tribe, Grant We have received two years of funding notified us that Blaine Shaishnikoff is their for $250,000 from the USDA Regional Food new representative on the APIA Board. We Systems Partnerships Program to address food thank Harriet Berikoff for her eight years of security in the region. The overarching goals of service and we welcome Blaine to the Board. this project are to get a clear understanding of the local food systems throughout the Aleutian GCI – Alaska United - Aleutian Fiber Pribilof Islands Region; then to begin planning Project On October 15, GCI hosted a and designing a regional food system through teleconference announcing its award of a $25 local and regional partnerships. Year one will million grant from the U.S. Department of focus on developing and/or adapting food Agriculture’s ReConnect program. This is in system assessment tools in a collaborative support of GCI’s Alaska United -Aleutians effort between Tribal partners and the Project Fiber Project, which will provide terrestrial Team. Year two will focus on completing broadband service for the first time to community visits, analyzing results from the Unalaska/Dutch Harbor and the communities local food system assessment, as well as producing and disseminating assessment of: King Cove, Sand Point, Akutan, Chignik reports. In addition, APIA will convene Tribal Bay and Larsen Bay. The project plans to be partners and key stakeholders for a regional substantially complete and in service by the gathering to disseminate end of 2022. The total cost of the project is Continued on page 4 4 Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc.