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Mayor’s Report
Week of May 3, 2004
Almond Shield is “One
in a Million!”
People are fond of having heroes these days. While
most “heroes” are of the distant variety and we know only as much about them
as we read in the newspapers or see on television, I think the most
important heroes are people we get to watch up close and personally. For
that reason, I’d like to recognize a local hero that we should all be proud
to have living among us.
Talk to the teachers at Kotzebue High School and they’ll describe this
senior student with phrases like: “He’s just special” or “He’s one in a
million.” Talk to the 150 or so students who competed at the state Native
Youth Olympic competition in late April or the thousands who watched the
events, and they’ll just tell you that Almond Shield is the 2004 NYO
Stick-Pull Champion.
Almond was one of a group of local students who represented this area after
securing that privilege with their performances at Regionals in Kotzebue.
Others attending State competition were Betsy Thomas, Adrienne West, Martha
Shield, Millie Booth, Emma Swan, Geraldine Trombley, Bill Brown, Edward
Garoutte, Donald Fairbanks, and David, Ned and Abe Lambert.
While Shield spends time in the high school weight room, he attributes much
of his strength to the chores he does at camp, where he lives for most of
each winter and keeps up with his studies through correspondence courses.
Gathering and chopping enough wood to keep a camp warm all year is
apparently the workout of champions.
In preparation for the State NYO competition, Almond had a practice match
versus Joe Groves, the Student Activities Director at the high school. With
Groves sporting a weight room-shaped 250 pounds and Shield under 200 pounds,
it was like a Dodge Ram pickup spinning its tires against a Honda. The
Honda managed to out-pull the truck in two of five tries!
Almond surprised the high school wrestling world by showing his tenacity at
State last December, when he placed second overall in the 215 pound
division. He accomplished that while weighing in at just 185 pounds
himself!
I am so proud that we have young men like Almond walking among us. While
his recent exploits are impressive, his kindness, politeness, dedication to
his family, and overall sound values are his trademark. Congratulations to
Almond and the entire Shield family as well as all the other student
athletes who competed in all the challenging NYO skills competitions. |
