Every November, youth from across Alaska meet up at Lead On, a conference where Alaskan youth develop leadership skills and return home organized and inspired to create positive change in their communities. KYUK Intern Airn Carl, a high school junior from Kwigillingok, attended the conference in Anchorage the weekend before Thanksgiving. After time to reflect, Carl has this recap.
All of us attending the Lead On conference were inspired by stories from many different speakers. There were several workshops with topics ranging from, “Building healthy relationships,” to “Leading the next generation”. We got to know each other, and shook off the nervousness in our bodies by laughing and socializing with new people.
Aliy Zirkle, a musher from Two Rivers, Alaska, promotes Lead On when she travels the state by dog team.
“They are opening up their hearts, and their brains, and their bodies to try to improve themselves so that they can go back and improve their community. I mean, that’s HUGE! Like, adults should be doing that,” Zirkle said.
She shared stories of her mushing and of how hard it is to complete a race. She complimented those of us at the Lead On conference.
Lead On happens every November. Hundreds of youth apply to go to Lead On, but only around 90 are accepted. While there, we work together to develop projects to improve our communities. I visited each workshop, and I saw and heard things that I needed to take notes on. I was impressed to hear such good things from others.
One story caught my mind as if a fisherman had just hooked me. This story was presented by Jenessy Salaffie and Nelson Nicori, both originally from Kwethluk. Salaffie and Nicori attended Lead On last year, and returned home inspired to make changes in their community
“We started talking about what we wanted to do to change our communities and what bothered us in our communities, and that was drugs and alcohol, of course, in the village of Kwethluk. It's supposed to be dry there, like none whatsoever," Salaffie said.
Kwethluk, like many dry communities, has plenty of illegal alcohol and drugs.
“And that bothered me, so me and Nelson wanted to change that. So we made this big plan, and we were ready for it here," Salaffie continued.
Salaffie and Nicori made plans to bring their community together to take a stand against alcohol and drugs. These plans included a family night and elders dinner. There were games, food, and gifts for elders. They had a really good time reuniting with their elders.
Finally, they decided to host a march against drugs and alcohol. Salaffie didn’t think this would work out. She doubted herself and backed off, but then she realized how important it was for the younger kids to grow up without alcohol and drugs around them.
“If they are growing up with people who are drinking and not showing them the right way, how are they gonna know what they’re going to do in life if they don’t know their way? Telling the kids that they're not alone, that they have us teenagers. They're looking up to us. Their parents are there, but they are not there," Salaffie said.
Salaffie and Nicori overcame their fears and went to the main post office, the gathering point for the demonstration. Surprisingly, everybody was there. Kids, parents, teachers, police, and troopers were there to protest drugs, alcohol, and violence, and to help out the community. All these people got there before she did, and they marched together all over Kwethluk, so this was something else.
This is just one example of the changes that are happening in communities all over Alaska as a result of Lead On.
From morning to night during the conference, everybody was busy learning and sharing meaningful experiences. I’m sure everybody had a good time, especially during lunch breaks when participants had time to talk about their workshops.
Lead On matters. It gives youth the time and space to understand the problems that come up in life, and how they can solve them. I’m glad I got to document this conference. Being there taught me to clearly see what comes up in front of me.
Watch the https://vimeo.com/193462315">Lead On 2016 recap from https://vimeo.com/user8217674">KYUK on Vimeo.