Everyone has a story to tell, but when one has lived as long and full a life as Bill Overstreet, there are more stories than can fit reasonably in a print feature in a newspaper, even split into a few parts. It’s astonishing that Overstreet himself was able to condense his life story into his short book, An Okie’s Life in the Alaskan Rainforest: From Territorial Teacher to Juneau Champion, which excludes the last dozen years, or that he can keep track as well as he has of everything that has happened over the course of 86 years.

Music education is about more than music or even education. At a personal level, and at a community level, it can provide strength and hope. Juneau’s Lorrie Heagy, who founded Juneau, Alaska Music Matters at Glacier Valley Elementary School, a steadily growing program, has shared stories of the power of music education in her life, locally, and as far away as Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

Heagy discovered El Sistema, the program on which JAMM is based, attending a symposium for Yale Distinguished Music Educators. The topic was El Sistema, a music program from Venezuela.

United Way of Southeast Alaska is already the go-to organization for non-profits seeking an umbrella organization for handling donations, increasing awareness and publicity, resource development and more — now, whether you are a partner organization or not, United Way is offering one more service.

Are you a nonprofit organization seeking volunteers or in-kind donations? Are you an upstanding citizen with time and skills to spare? Get Connected is where you can meet.

Elizabeth Cuadra was in her 60s when she became a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years in Nepal.