• Justin Parish along with the Alaska Legislature has awarded Helping Hands of Juneau for their 35th year anniversary at our annual dinner and auction on Aug. 4. Many organizations have also offered their support, including the Valley Church for our annual dinner and auction, Fred Meyer, Foodland IGA, Superbear IGA, Mendenhall flying Lions, Women Of The Moose and Safeway.

Today, Helping Hands provides food for thousand of meals a week. Over a decade we have given out food for more than a million meals.

I would also like to thank the Juneau community for their continued support.

Betty Kaplor,

Helping Hands

•The Juneau Community Garden Association’s 26th annual Harvest Fair was a grand success thanks to the generosity of time, talent and treasures from so many friends of the garden. We are grateful to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church for use of their kitchen and to Ryan Scott of the ADFG Hunter Ed Shooting Complex, and Gerry Godkin of the Juneau Gun Club for the use of their parking lots. Thanks to Super Bear IGA for the generous donation of hotdogs and buns and to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for their guidance. Thanks also to KTOO and KINY for air time on the radio.

Produce and flowers were exhibited at the fair and ribbons awarded by the team of expert judges: Ed Buyarski, Lead Judge, Danielle Brown-Farrell, Janis Burns Buyarski, Jenny Fremlin, Douglas Com. Gardens, Sylvia Geraghty, Merrill Jensen, Jensen Olson Arboretum, Sarah Lewis, UAF Cooperative Extension Service, Nikki Love, Joe Orsi, Judy Neary and Terry Toon. Well done, folks.

Gratitude is also extended to the talented guest folk musicians, Lis and Leif Saya, Dale Wygant, Henry Hopkins, and Gerry Fiscus who provided a festive atmosphere for our gathering.

The Farmers’ Market, food sales and exhibit of produce and flowers are made possible through the efforts of JCGA members who contribute produce and baked goods for purchase, and work to make sure it all runs smoothly, including parking, set up and clean-up. Thanks to all for your dedication to our community garden.

Juneau gardeners love to play in the dirt and then celebrate with each other as we share the fruits of our labors. Thanks to everyone who made the celebration a wonderful success.

Pat McLear

JCGA Board Secretary

• The Southeast Alaska Food Bank would like to thank Brock and Olin from the American Legion Post 25 baseball team, as well as Hailee, Ali, Jade, Taylor, Maya, Jorace, Morgan from the JDHS Dance Team, as well as their coach, Kayla Price, for helping us collect 737 pounds of food at Foodland IGA on Aug. 4.

We’d also like to thank First Student for once again lending us the use of one of their school busses to transport this food to the food bank.

We live in a very selfless and generous community, and this generosity is very apparent every time a group like this chooses to collect food to help our cause.

It’s only because of efforts like this, and the generosity of the people of Juneau, that we can continue to work toward our goal of providing healthy and nutritious food to those members of our community who need help providing food for themselves or their families.

Thank you again, First Student, American Legion Post 25 baseball and JDHS Dance Team. And thank you to everyone at Foodland IGA who helped us coordinate this food drive. Together, we can end hunger.

Darren Adams

Southeast Alaska Food Bank Manager