Share My Alaska Experience: NYO in Chefornak

Hi Eveyone! This is long overdue! Last weekend I was given the incredible opportunity to chaperone the NYO (Native Youth Olympics) team to Chefornak (our closest neighboring village). I was very excited since a few of the NYO events had been demonstrated to me when I was at Culture Camp this summer but I didn't get to see all of them. I was very excited to get to see our kids compete as well! They are very much into NYO... it's a big thing at our school and our NYO coach is known all over the state. He was awarded NYO coach of the year for Alaska a few years back so it was very much an honor to be going with him.

We were bringing 10 athletes, me, and the coach so there were 12 of us. If you haven't noticed, when traveling, the number of passengers is important. 12 people allows us to fit on a 207 in 2 groups, 6 and 6. I could go with one group and the coach could go with the other. We weren't quite sure what time the flight was going to come in and they were going to shuttle us back and forth since Chefornak is so close, so most of the students went through the entire school day in their snow pants, ready to leave at the drop of a hat. (We usually only get 10-20 minutes notice for a plane coming in and we have to walk to the airport so time is everything) We finally heard over the VHF that our plane was inbound so the first group left for the airport. I took the second flight since I was the newbie. I made sure that my students had the proper district-required gear (district requires that all students traveling during this time of the year have a sleeping bag, snow pants, snow boots, coat, hat, gloves, ect.) and we headed to the airport.

We made it to the airport just in time to watch our flight come in and as we were boarding the plane I realize that I was taking 5 students on a plane! LOL! (To go to an athletic event of all things) What a crazy concept!

One of my students looking back at Kinpuk as we head to Chefornak

We arrived and were picked up by the principal in the school's suburban. Thank goodness because the airstrip in Chefornak is about a mile from the school and it was COLD! It was nice to ride in a car, out of the wind. I could see the excitement in the kids as we got closer to the school. They were all excited to be in another village, be competing, and seeing friends/relatives that they hadn't seen in awhile.

I was able to see some friends that I hadn't seen in awhile too! Kevin, from Toksook brought his NYO team (I was actually chaperoning his girls since their female chaperone couldn't come) and Julia from Eek had chaperoned one girl from her village. We were able to make a quick trip to the "mall" in Chefornak, named so because it is two stories and about 4 times the size as the stores we have in Kipnuk. They had quite the selection of food and even had ICECREAM!

As soon as all of the schools arrived the competition was underway! I told the coach to let me know if he needed any help and he quickly enlisted me to keep score. I was able to learn the rules for the game and how to score the different events :-) I also got to see many of our girls compete up close.


Keeping score for Kneel Jump (My student, Akaka is the one competing) Students begin kneeling and have to jump to their feet without touching any other part of their body to the ground.