Shungnak School's motto "It's a 'We'" was put to the test last week when the Arctic Alaska village's water system froze, leaving the community of around 260 people high and dry.
Students from the community got to work filling buckets and pails from the Kobuk River to deliver to residents. The local VHF radio was buzzing early last week with residents asking for help, said Shungnak School Principal Roger Franklin in an email.
"They met their families and elders at the river with buckets, pails and cans with only one vision in mind: It's a 'We'," Franklin said. "As people had called out on the VHF for help, those 12 students turned heartbreak and thirst into humanity and tirelessness."
School was canceled last week, but when community members got the system up and running late Sunday night, classes were slated to resume. This week, students will stay at school for an extra hour to make up for lost time, Franklin said Monday.
Along with the students, the entire community pulled together as is customary and part of the Inupiat values, Franklin added.
"The whole village was out," he said. "People want to help; it's ingrained in them."
The line and pump that run water from the Kobuk River to the city's holding tank froze early last week, clogging the system and leaving the water reserve very low, said Shungnak Mayor Melvin Lee. It's not a common occurrence for the town, but there is concern that it will happen again.
"This will probably be happening for the rest of the year, but I sure hope not," Lee said.
Usually the channel where the pipes are located is clear of ice chunks, but for some reason things shifted last week.
"We're going to be landlocked pretty soon if it keeps going like that," Lee said.
"We just help each other out as best we could and everyone's happy. We just have to live with it and get on with it."
Residents used space heaters to thaw the line from the tank to the river to pump enough water into the storage tank so it could be distributed, he added.
"It's a long process. Everyone did a good job."