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Noorvik Residents
Think Small Business At the invitation of a group of Noorvik residents, my Economic Development staff made a special visit to the village last week to discuss grant and loan opportunities. A Monday evening meeting at the new school's Inupiaq Culture room drew over a dozen adults who were interested in pursuing small business ventures. The meeting was organized by the Noorvik Resource Specialist Frances Greene with assistance from Martha Wells. The organizers of the meeting were joined by Rhoda and John Johnson, Shirleen Wells, Allen Sheldon, Pauline Pungalik, Bob and Evelyn Mulluk, Minnie Morris, Lonnie Tebbits, and Virgil and Helen Coffin. Over two hours, they listened to details about our Borough Small Business Grant and Revolving Loan programs, as well as our Arts Marketing program. They also met our new Arts Program Manager, Vika Owens. Three lucky drawing winners received Wizard RX1 carving kits, which should inspire some artistic creativity. As a result of the meeting, John Johnson will be starting welding business in Noorvik and Homer and Shirleen Wells will be setting up a small store in their home. Pauline Pungalik applied for one of our loans for the purpose of adding new inventory to Pungalik's store. Others are in the process of shaping business plans. My staff remained in Noorvik on Tuesday to discuss arts and crafts with all the students and faculty at the school. Vika did a scrimshaw demonstration throughout the day and the students were delighted to have the chance to see her perform her magic on a walrus tusk. By the time the school day ended, she had nearly completed a scene entitled "Animals Dancing." Hopefully, her work will inspire some of those students to pursue art as a hobby or future vocation. The Art Class in Noorvik has been assigned the responsibility of designing artwork that will become trophies and other awards for student competitive events this school year. The village can look forward to seeing a Noorvik "Bear" depicted on pins, plaques and other items rewarding outstanding performance. The Arts for Awards Program is funded by the Borough through a grant to the school district. We hope to see locally made awards from traditional art materials such as ivory, antler, baleen and caribou skin in many of the region's schools this year. At the time of this writing, the Kotzebue Invitational Cross Country Meet is about to start here in Kotzebue. Elementary, Middle School and High School runners will be competing in the first athletic event of the new school year. The boy and girl who finish first in each of four divisions will receive a beautiful ivory pin with a scrimshawed Eskimo runner depicted on it. The first place boys and girls high school teams will receive similar awards in a presentation box as their trophies. Thank you, Noorvik, for your interest and enthusiasm in starting businesses. We will certainly do our best to accommodate any village that would like a similar special visit. Just call me at our Borough office at 1-800-478-1110. |