More than the 3 R’s
Children living in floating timber camp attend survival classes
Associated Press
ALASKA — The three R’s are just
so much kid stuff to the youngsters
at this Fire Cove floating timber
camp.They must pass a tough swim
ming test — 200 yards to shore and
back in frigid waters — before they
can walk around without lifejackets.
Survival skills and learning to
cope with the environment come
early to the 19 students who tread
the wooden sidewalks at this tempo
rary community, anchored off Revil-
lagigedo Island, about 30 miles
north of Ketchikan.
The students who reside at timber
camps like Fire Cove are part of a
logging tradition that brought their
parents and their parents’ parents to
the woods and waters of southeast
ern Alaska.
There are 489 students in the
20,000-scjuare mile Southeast Island
School District, which stretches from
Dixon Entrance to the Frederick
Sound. Of that number, 399 stu
dents attend classes in the district’s
16 school buildings while 90 are in
correspondence study.
Eleven of the schools are in log
ging or fishing camps with the rest in
permanent locations. Most of the
communities are accessible only by
floatplane or boat.
District Superintendent Bob
Weinstein said the programs are a
bit more irregular than those of
fered in urban areas.
Camp teachers are augmented by
three music teachers, two special ed
ucation teachers, a language special
ist, a kindergarten specialist, a librar
ian, a correspondence study teacher
and a nurse. All regularly fly the log
ging camp circuit to provide their
special kinds of expertise.
Most of the people living in the
logging camps live in mobile homes
because much of the area is federal
forest land where no permanent
dwellings are allowed.
The Fire Cove operation includes
20 families and about 20 workers as
signed to bunkhouses during the
height of the logging season.
The community has 24 mobile
homes, four regular houses, a gym.
multi-grade school and playground.
All sit on decking lashed to massive
logs which float the entire village on
the water.
Don and Biz Robbins are the hus
band-wife team who teach grades
one through nine at the camp
school. Their trailer is just a few
yards from the gym and classroom.
The camp playground, consisting of
a few swings and a small merry-go-
round, is in their front yard.
Robbins says the job requires some
skills not needed at most schools —
like fixing the furnace.
“But you’ve always got the com
munity to fall back on if you’ve got a
mechanical problem," he says. “Eve
ryone is willing to pitch in.”
Car cruises shop
from outside in
Associated Press
AUSTIN — An auto parts
?fr
shop official says his storefront
has a special attraction for speed
ing vehicles — three have crashed
through the front window within
the past six months.
Moses Saldana, assistant man
ager of the southside Western
Auto store, said the first time a
car crashed through the front
window, he thought it was a freak
accident; the second he attributed
to bad luck.
But after the same thing hap
pened a third time Monday, Sal
dana said he’s beginning to won
der if he’s not living right.
“We must be doing soi
wrong,” Saldana saidafterl
est accident sent a car
through the front windowo||
store, causing $2,500 toM
damages.
Saldana said the latest wren !
about 5 p.m., occurred as 15
drove his car through thef-
parking lot. The man toldjl
dana a stereo speaker feiy
under the dash and lodged) 1
tween the brake pedal and)
floorboard.
The driver, who police did j
identify, was not injured,j
were any store customers,^
dana said.
1(1 Ciill
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