By:  Brooks Chandler

Itching to get your fingers dirty and grow your own?  Plots are available in Girdwood’s community garden. Though currently snow covered the Community Garden is soon to be a thriving green space located between the Girdwood Chapel and Girdwood Brewery on Girdwood Chapel property.  

The garden is a project of Turnagain Community Services, Inc., a Girdwood-based non-profit organization.  TCS President Alice Simmons said the garden aims to provide sustainability, unity and growth for Girdwood residents.

Betty Charnon, TCS board member and volunteer, manages the garden.  

She said the garden includes one plot dedicated to growing produce for another TCS endeavor, the community Food Pantry.  

The garden is more than just a place to grow food and flowers, According to Charnon.  

“It serves as a gathering spot for neighbors to come together, share knowledge and build lasting friendships,” she said.  

Annual fees to offset operating costs are $25 per season.  Needs-based discounts are available.  

Charnon said those interested in having a plot (which includes access to space in the new greenhouse!) can fill out the application form available at: https://www.girdwoodchapel.com/community-garden/  (or: email TurnagainCommunityServices@gmail.com  or call 907-783-0127) to request an application form). 

On May 18, the Community Garden is holding a plant sale fundraiser.  The sale will feature mature and starter annuals and perennials and perhaps some veggi starts.  The sale will be held at the Girdwood Brewery from 11 am to 4 p.m.   

(The writer is a board member of Turnagain Community Services, Inc).

Change of Sitzmark Time is 12 to 3 pm Saturday.

Attorney and lifelong Alaskan Cabot Charles Christianson, 71, died on March 3, 2024, from cardiac arrest, while skiing with his family at Alyeska Resort. Cabot was born in Sitka, Alaska, on Dec. 20, 1952, where his parents homesteaded an island in Sitka Sound.

For Cabot, "The Island" was a magical place to grow up, which led to his lifelong passion for wild and natural places and the sea. He later moved to the Lower 48 to live with his mother during the school year, with summers in Sitka. Cabot graduated from high school in Norwalk, Conn. A scholar-athlete, he excelled in math, captained the chess team and won the Connecticut State Wrestling Championship. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1975, with a B.A. in economics with high honors. In 1978, Cabot graduated from Stanford Law School and moved to Anchorage, Alaska, to begin a 46-year law career specializing in commercial law and bankruptcy.

Cabot was an outdoorsman and adventurer. He kayaked from Seattle to Sitka in college, a 40-day, 800-mile voyage with a friend in a two-man kayak, subsisting on peanut butter, chocolate and clams. He hiked the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada and hunted mountain goat on Baranof Island.

In 1983, Cabot married Cynthia Pickering, also an attorney. For over four decades they skied, sailed and kayaked, and built and frequented their cabins, in Kliuchevoi Bay near Sitka, in Girdwood, Alaska, and in the San Juan Islands. One of their favorite trips was skiing and dogsledding at Wonder Lake. But, their biggest adventure was raising their three boys: Nicholas, Charles and Kieffer. Cabot is fondly remembered enjoying stories with his sons in the evenings, from Treasure Island to Sherlock Holmes.

Homestead life fostered the ingenuity and self-reliance which were hallmarks of the man Cabot became. His children refer to his ability to solve building and other off-grid challenges, as his "island boy skills." Cabot's work life as an attorney was no less creative, where his attention to detail and facility with numbers shone. Cabot was devoted to his clients and found great satisfaction in helping Alaskans with their businesses. From a recent client, "He took care of my company like it was his own."

Cabot believed in the power of education. He served as an elected member of the Anchorage School Board, and as trustee for schools and a children's camp.

Cabot was noted for his quiet charisma. His wife said "He had an elegant mind." Cabot's boys said that he challenged them to be the best version of themselves and encouraged them to attack seemingly insurmountable problems head-on.

Cabot is survived by his wife, Cynthia; children, Nicholas (Sarah), Charles (Courtney) and Kieffer (Josefin); grandchildren, August, Astrid and Estelle; mother, Faith Medlin; and siblings, Kord, Thor (Jessica) and Tanya. His father Warren Christianson predeceased him. A Celebration of Life will be held in Cabot's honor at the Sitzmark in Girdwood on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at 3 p.m. A church service will be held at 10 a.m., on May 11, at Our Lady of the Snows in Girdwood. The family has requested that remembrances be made in the form of contributions in Cabot’s name to the Sitka Conservation Society, the Food Bank of Alaska or WildSalmonCenter.org. (Obituary donated by the family)