As long as I am Haines Borough Mayor, I will support the non-profit corporations that work to make our valley a better place.
If your nonprofit needs a letter of support from the Haines Borough to receive a grant or anything else, come see me at the borough office.
The firefighter who shows up to put out your chimney blaze works for a nonprofit. So does the young teacher who helps your youngster at preschool. So does the announcer on your town’s only radio station.
There are about 90 nonprofits in Haines. They operate our medical clinic, our savings and loan, our recycling program, our four museums, our economic development office, our youth swim team, our animal rescue kennel, our women’s s shelter and our only public-use building in the upper valley. They provide hiking trails, senior housing and little league baseball.
They represent $5 million in annual income and an army of volunteers who do some of our valley’s dirtiest and most challenging work.
In the 37 years since I arrived in Haines, the number of nonprofits has swelled as government sources of funding dried up under successive Republican federal and state administrations.
For example, Ronald Reagan in 1986 eliminated federal municipal assistance, a program that distributed $85 billion to towns and cities for 14 years, including money that paid for Haines police officers. Before Reagan, our police could rely on friends in Washington. Now they rely on a local nonprofit, Haines Friends of Police.
The Southeast Alaska State Fair for years received tens of thousands of dollars of support annually for its work promoting agriculture. The fair, a nonprofit that prided itself as a family event, resigned itself to selling beer and wine to fill the budget gap left when state leaders bailed out.
Until we recover from a long fever of senseless austerity that has bankrupted our nation and state, nonprofit organizations will provide the patch between what our community needs and what political leaders are willing to provide.
If you’re not buying it, here is a partial list of non-profits active in our community: S.E. AK State Fair, Friends of Recycling, YMCA of Michigan, Lynn Canal Broadcasting, Chilkat Valley Pre-School, Haines Arts Council, Haines Christian Center, Becky’s Place Haven of Hope, Alaska Chilkoot Bear Foundation, Chilkoot Indian Association, Haines Animal Rescue Kennel, St. Lucy’s Senior Living Active, Special Education Service, Takshanuk Watershed Council, The Salvation Army-Alaska, Friends of the Haines Borough Public Library, Rural AK Community Action Program, New Hope Fellowship, Southeast Alaska Independent Living, Haines Senior Village, Hospice of Haines, Port Chilkoot Bible Church Active, American Legion Lynn Canal Post #12, Haines Assisted Living Inc., Haines Hot Shots, Haines Dolphins Swim Team, Girl Scouts of Alaska, Sheldon Museum & Cultural Center, Hammer Museum, Inc., American Bald Eagle Foundation, Echo Ranch Bible Camp, Alaska Indian Arts, Inc., Chilkat Valley Historical Society, Great Bear Foundation, Southeast Senior Services, Foundation for the Chilkat Center, Lynn Canal Community Players, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Covenant Life Center, Lynn Canal Conservation, Haines Woman’s Club, Alaska Arts Confluence, Great Alaska Council Boy Scouts, Haines Presbyterian Church, Haines Volunteer Fire Department, REACH, Inc., Eldred Rock Lighthouse Preservation Association, Theater at Latitude 58, Huna Heritage Foundation, St. Michael and All Angels, Southeast Alaska Land Trust, Haines Sportsmans Association, Juneau Arts & Humanities, Boy Scouts of America, Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority, Haines Economic Development Corp., Troop 496 of BCC, Church of Jesus Christ, United Methodist Church, Grace Lutheran Church, Friends of Haines Police, Tongass Federal Credit Union, Team Rubicon, Haines Little League, Four Winds Resource Center, BSA TROOP #80, Haines Huts & Trails.