September 23, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Capital City Weekly features Sitka Farmers Market Table of the Day, Running of the Boots fundraiser for Sitka Local Foods Network

Screenshot of Capital City Weekly page about Mike Wise winning the Table of the Day Award at the final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer

Click here to see this week’s Capital City Weekly coverage of Mike Wise of Raven’s Peek Roasters and Sailor’s Choice Coffee winning the Table of the Day Award for the final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer on Sept. 12.

Click here to read a notice in this week’s Capital City Weekly about the Running of the Boots on Saturday, Sept. 26.

For those of you who will be in Juneau and not in Sitka on Saturday for the Running of the Boots, click here to read about the Autumn Garden Party and Wine Tasting event on Saturday at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum up in Juneau.

In a local foods story from the Northwest Arctic, Kotzebue author/photographer Seth Kantner (author of “Ordinary Wolves” and “Shooping for Porcupine”) writes an essay for the Alaska Dispatch Web site about hunting caribou to provide meat for his family.

Finally, we have two stories about the role salmon played in the development of two Southeast Alaska communities — Ketchikan and Pelican. Ketchikan’s Dave Kiffer writes one of his regular history columns for the Stories in the News Web site about how Ketchikan became “the canned salmon capital of the world.” In the Capital City Weekly, Norm Carson writes a story about how a cold storage plant helped Pelican “settled closest to the fish.”

September 20, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Juneau Empire on Sunday runs Sitka Farmers Market photo and Running of the Boots article

Juneau Empire screenshot of Mike Wise winning the final Table of the Day Award for the 2009 season of Sitka Farmers Markets.

Click here to see the Juneau Empire’s coverage on Sunday of Mike Wise of Raven’s Peek Roasters and Sailor’s Choice Coffee winning the Table of the Day Award for the final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer on Sept. 12.

Click here to read a Juneau Empire notice in Sunday’s paper about the Running of the Boots on Saturday, Sept. 26.

September 19, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Just a reminder, the Running of the Boots fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network is this Saturday

The 15th annual Running of the Boots takes place at 11 a.m. this Saturday, Sept. 26 (registration opens at 10 a.m.). In this fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network, runners don their XtraTufs as they run from the Crescent Harbor shelter and around St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral downtown and back (more ambitious runners can run to the corner of Lincoln and Katlian streets and back to Crescent Harbor).

For the second straight year, the Running of the Boots is part of the Season’s End Celebration, sponsored by the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Cruise Association. After the run and lip-synch contest, participants can join the rest of the Sitka community for a free lunch with fish and chips near Harry Race/White’s Pharmacy and burgers and hot dogs near the Coliseum Theatre.

The entry fee for the Running of the Boots is $5 per person and $20 per family, and people can register for the race starting at 10 a.m. There is a lip synch contest after the race, which costs $10 to enter. There also are several contest categories for costumes, painted boots and other awards.

Click here for complete details.

The 2008 winner of the fastest boots award

XtraTufs and togas are high fashion at the 2008 Running of the Boots

September 12, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Running of the Boots raises funds for Sitka Local Foods Network

Runners hit the trail during the 14th Annual Running of the Boots race on Sept. 27, 2008, in Sitka.

It’s time to dig your XtraTufs out of the closet and get them painted up. The 15th annual Running of the Boots takes place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Crescent Harbor shelter.

The Running of the Boots is part of the second annual Season’s End Celebration, an event sponsored by the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Cruise Association that includes a free lunch for Sitka residents. The chamber’s board donates money raised by the Running of the Boots to the Sitka Local Foods Network, the non-profit group that hosts the Sitka Farmers Market and advocates for community gardens, a community greenhouse, sustainable uses of traditional subsistence foods and education for Sitka gardeners.

So what is the Running of the Boots? It’s Southeast Alaska’s answer to Spain’s “Running of the Bulls.” But unlike the Pamplona spectacle, humans do the running in Sitka and they wear zany costumes and XtraTufs — Southeast Alaska’s distinctive rubber boots (aka, Sitka Sneakers). The entry fee for the Running of the Boots is $5 per person and $20 per family, and people can register for the race starting at 10 a.m. There is a lip synch contest after the race, which costs $10 to enter.

The Running of the Boots is a short race for fun and not for speed, even though one of the many prize categories is for the fastest boots. Categories include best dressed boots, zaniest costume, best couple, best kids group and many others. The course includes a loop around St. Michael’s Cathedral before returning to Crescent Harbor for families with children, or a run from Crescent Harbor to the corner of Katlian and Lincoln streets and back for Sitka’s hardier souls.

“This event will be one of the highlights of our Season’s End Celebration, after which Sitkans can partake of the Alaska Cruise Association’s free lunch,” said Sheila Finkenbinder, executive director of the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce. Finkenbinder started the ‘run’ 15 years ago, inspired by an idea from KCAW-Raven Radio general manager Ken Fate.

“This is a really fun way to advance the Sitka Farmers Market and our other Sitka Local Foods Network projects,” Sitka Local Foods Network President Kerry MacLane said. “And just like at the market, there will be live music by the Sitka Blues Band.”

To learn more about the Running of the Boots, contact Kerry MacLane at 752-0654 or by e-mail at maclanekerry@yahoo.com. More information about the race can be found online at http://www.runningoftheboots.org/ and photos from the 2008 Running of the Boots can be found online at
http://sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.shutterfly.com/80?startIndex=100 (scroll down to find Running of the Boots photos).