CPR and Parachutes

Below are the links to my final two articles in the Anchorage Daily News:

http://www.adn.com/life/health/story/483273.html (A story about a man who saves his daughter’s life by administering CPR)

http://www.adn.com/life/story/492107.html (A story about the 5-year-old Parachutes Teen Center, a teen hangout in an Anchorage mall)

Enjoy!

Struggling young adults and orphaned critters

Here are two articles I wrote that came out after my last day of work:

http://www.adn.com/anchorage/story/482022.html

http://www.adn.com/anchorage/story/482577.html

One is about the large number of young adults in Anchorage who are homeless and struggling to make ends meet. The other is about the Alaska Zoo, which is unique in that more than half of its animals were orphaned or injured.

All great adventures must come to an end

Today was my last day of work. Tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. I’ll be on a flight back home to KC.

I’ve had an awesome summer. As I told someone earlier today, I’ve learned a lot about journalism, the great state of Alaska, and in many ways, myself.

I was blessed to have two couples at the paper reach out to me and provide me with a car to drive and a guest room to stay in.

The family I stayed with was great. They were a ton of fun and introduced me to experiences and ideas I might have never discovered had I lived on my own.

I mastered the stick shift… which was no easy feat. I definitely was humbled as a driver. Six years driving an automatic means little when you get behind a stick. 

I had a chance to work with an amazing group of reporters, photographers and editors up here who really know their stuff and were always willing to give me good advice and support. To top it off, I was in a buzzing newsroom when some huge political stories broke up here.

I got to see a humpback whale, tons of moose, sea lions, sea otters, puffins, bald eagles and salmon — all in their natural habitats.

I’ll miss the people, who all are especially friendly, the 20 hours of sunlight, nearly non-existant humidity (at least compared to what I’m used to), the gorgeous mountains and of course, the fabulous FRESH salmon and halibut.

I would like to give shouts out to … ha ha. I’m just kidding. But seriously, thanks to everyone who has stopped by my lil’ ol’ blog and shared in this experience with me. 🙂 I hope you’ve learned a few things about Alaska along the way.

I do want to apologize if you see a few posts that have some pictures that don’t fit the captions. In the last few days, something funky has been going on with the blog or my computer and it’s switching around some of the photos.. Very odd. I’ll try my best to get them back to normal.

I still have some more photos left to post and a few more articles that will be printed in the next several days, so check back.

TO BE CONTINUED…

God bless.