Posts by Kjersti McElwee
The Nome Static, June 2023 (print layout)
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Read MoreHometown leaders honored for helping others
Recently, a number of stories have emerged about leaders whose examples, sacrifice, and focus on others honor their communities. First, Corporal Bruce Boolowon was awarded for his heroic effort rescuing 11 U.S. Navy airmen in 1955. Boolowon saw a U.S. Navy airplane, a Lockheed P2V-5 Neptune, shot down by Soviet fighter planes. He and a…
Read MoreInnovative students awarded
What do a renewable snow cone machine and an app for tracking dangerous wildlife have in common? Both are award-winning ideas dreamt up by Nome youngsters. Fifth-grader Denali Walrath and second-grader Bradley Rowe recently took home awards from a statewide competition for innovation in the Arctic. Walrath, who took first place in the aptly-named Cub…
Read MoreDear Friend… (June 2023)
As soon as the snow melts and winter parkas come off, bustling activity begins in Alaska. Construction crews and seasonal workers return to work sites. In Nome, the first barge brings in long-awaited supplies ordered months ago. Soon, salmon will start running. Not long after that the first berries will be ripe. The bountiful food…
Read MoreHope for sustainability in sight for water and sanitation
As communities endure seemingly annual water line freeze-ups and other sanitation issues, a new partnership in the region gives cause for optimism. For two years, Engineering Ministries International (EMI), a Christian nonprofit that works primarily in developing nations, has been involved in a partnership to improve water and sanitation in the Bering Strait region. During…
Read More$50 for 50 Years On The Air
Did you know KNOM has a big day coming up? July 14, 2021, marks 50 years of broadcasting in Western Alaska. What better way to celebrate five decades of being a radio friend and companion than to give KNOM away? KNOM has received a number of phone calls from village listeners asking for radios for…
Read More2020 By the Numbers
KNOM’s spending aligned with budget totals in fiscal year 2020 (July 1-June 30), 3.5% less than total projected ordinary expenses. Income, on the other hand was 27.4% more than expected, mainly due to several large one-time gifts to KNOM. One expense KNOM does not bear is the labor cost of full-time volunteer fellows. Their collective…
Read MoreDear Friend… (Christmas 2020)
KNOM’s announcers are trained to talk with, not to, the listener. Engaging the Listener, the fourth line of the station’s mission statement, represents a mutual radio friendship. For many local families, the relationship reaches back decades. Listeners tune in for live events, submit special ‘hotline’ messages to friends and family, or call in with song…
Read MoreTransmission Incoming: Sharing the Word from KNOM’s Heartland
This Advent season, episodes of Sharing the Word in Western Alaska feature the Sunday gospel reading and a radio-friendly homily. Pat (Patrick) Tam gave voice to the episodes. Tam is a Catholic parish worker who lives in Emmonak. He arrived in the village as a Jesuit volunteer in 1981 and has devoted his life to…
Read MoreSucessful Inaugural Semester for Iñupiaq Immersion School
“We’ve just been Iñupiaqizing it, indigenizing it, Alaskanizing it,” teacher and administrator Kiminaq Maddy Alvanna-Stimpfle told the Nome School Board. Many eyes have been on Nome’s Iñupiaq immersion program, which opened this fall. Alvanna-Stimpfle has created culturally relevant worksheets and materials for students and welcomes elders in the classroom. Almost every day, elders in the…
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