Sheldon Jackson School

There are not enough superlative to define how honored I felt to work at Sheldon Jackson College until it closed this past summer. But working at SJC was also often like an abusive relationship. Most of us who loved working there and loved the school loved it in spite of the fact it was always beating us up emotionally and physical. I say physical because most of us dedicated employees worked 60, 70, sometimes even 80 or more hours a week. And I say emotionally because we knew how financially strapped the school was. Always being strapped for funds made it very, very hard to do our jobs.

But, we worked hard and long hours because we loved working with the kids that went to school at SJC. And, I loved working at SJC because I had great boss, great employees who worked for me and I was the person who worked with the most volunteers. Since I was the head of the maintenance department and since management estimated we had about 35 or more million dollars in differed maintenance there was always plenty to do. And, a very large percentage of the work was done by volunteers.

During the summers workgroups from various Presbyterian Churches from all over the nation would come and help with major building projects, summer painting, grounds keeping, and you name it. In the 4 summers I was at SJC I was privileged to oversee the work of nearly 1000 volunteers! Yes, working with volunteers can be a challenge, but I found 99.9% of the volunteers to be wonderful people who had a strong will to do good things. With just a little supervision people who had never picked up a hammer, power tool, or even a paint brush can do fantastic work. Not only did the volunteers do this hard work, but they paid their way here to Sitka, paid to sleep in a dorm room and usually funded the project they were working on. So, yes I loved working with these folks.

And, I haven’t mentioned the VIM’s. VIM stands for Volunteers in Mission. These folks would come to SJC for extended periods of time, some for a school semester, some for a year or more. Once again, good hard working folks who gave of them selves with the only pay to them being the knowledge they had done something good. I found the VIM’s to the cream of the cream.

The pay at SJC was never what it should have been, but the people more than made up for all the other deficiencies. When the school closed this past summer it was not only the loss of a 130 year old institution, but the loss of so many good friends. It’s been hard watching some of my fellow workmates from SJC struggle to find jobs in a small town and it’s been even harder to see some very fine folks have to leave town for other work. I know I was one of the lucky ones who wasn’t hurt financially as hard by the lay off as some of the others were, and I’m grateful for that.

Founded in 1878 the school was the oldest educational institution in Alaska. Sheldon Jackson founded the school to help Alaska Natives and that was the school primary mission for 130 years.

The main entrance sign to the school was built by VIM Vern Boyer in 2006.

I loved the variety of work at SJC. I built this flag pole which is 60 feet high. The flag is 12 feet high and 18 feet long. The flag and materials for the pole were donated by one of the SJC Trustees

The yard arm on the pole was built by one of my employees Jay Schrader and was the 1st time he had ever weleded aluminum. (I enjoyed watching my employees and volunteers learn new skills!)

This tree house at the SJC Childcare Center was built from Alaska yellow and red cedar. Most of the construction was overseen by VIM Cathy Barnes. In fact this tree house was mostly built by women.

I’m very pleased to say that long time childcare director Lolly Miller along with many of the parents of the kids in the childcare center formed a non-profit corporation and it looks like they will be able to keep the center open.

This tricycle track was primarly built by VIM’s Marv De Jong and retired physics professor and John Kleis a retired middle school science teacher. Neither one had ever done concrete work before.

My favorite part of the track is this sinuous section.