Rural Alaska

Tundra Women's Coalition honors Kwethluk teens and school leaders

BETHEL -- A Southwestern Alaska women's shelter and advocacy organization has named three Kwethluk teens among the "emergent leaders" it honored this year.

Tundra Women's Coalition held its 14th Yuketaaq -- Yup'ik for honorable person -- celebration on Saturday with a catered dinner, awards ceremony and silent auction at the Yup'iit Piciryarait Cultural Center.

Those honored this year included Kwethluk teens Jenessy Sallaffie, Nelson Nicori and John Noes, who have been working to make the village healthier by targeting alcohol and drugs. It's the first time the women's coalition gave the honor to teens, said Executive Director Eileen Arnold. Usually elders are picked. But this year the coalition wanted to recognize new and young leaders, she said.

Also honored were Zack Pleasant, a new coach at Gladys Jung Elementary who also works as a teacher's aide at Mikelnguut Elitnaurviat, as well as Clarence Daniel, a member of the Lower Kuskokwim School Board and the Association of Alaska School Boards.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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