This summer, KNOM listeners will hear youngsters dubbed “Nanauyaat Radio Rangers” tackle a wide range of topics relating to being responsible members of one’s community.

“How do we take care of others?” asks a recent radio spot airing on KNOM. A series of young voices answer: “keep your house clean, be nice, (and) play with your big brother,” and help an elder get to the local store. It’s part of a new spot series created with Nome first-grade students, in collaboration with Nome Schools and the National Park Service.

Volunteer producer Karen Trop explains that the series features the ideas and voices of Nome first graders. The young “radio rangers” learned from a six-week curriculum mixing radio production and environmental stewardship, developed with park rangers from the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.

In another youth-focused feature, eight-year-old Haley Evans shows how she has helped handle sled dogs for a Nome musher since she was only three. (She’s a “sidekick,” both musher and apprentice say.) In the seven-minute episode, we hear Haley cheerfully explain how she’s come to know the kennel’s twenty-eight dogs. She’s accomplished more skills than most adults can claim.

You can hear Haley, and the “radio rangers,” here on knom.org.

Image at top: Karen Trop addresses first-graders as part of a project with Nome Schools and the National Park Service. Photo: Lia Nydes.