It was the greatest event ever held on the Kenai Peninsula. Many Chef de Mission of the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) wondered if such a small community so far south could host the Games for Alaska. But when they came to review the venue hundreds of volunteers and native Alaskans lined the streets at the Kenai Airport and along their review route wearing buttons and waving banners “We Want the Games!” It was the follow through of a vision shared with the community of then Borough Dale Bagley and in 2016 indeed the Kenai Peninsula hosted what is still referred to as the “Greatest Arctic Winter Games ever.” Ten years later a committee headed by AWG volunteer Becky Foster and Tim Navarre is planning a 10-year Anniversary reunion to once again “Release the Spirit Within.”
“Team Alaska invites all the past and present Arctic Winter Games participants and volunteers to the 10 year anniversary reunion of the international athletic and cultural event, as well as celebrating the recently returning participants of the 2016 Arctic Winter Games in Nuuk, Greenland March 5th-12th. We want folks to wear their AWG clothing, bring your photos, medals, and your good memories to the KPB Assembly meeting, 6:00 on April 5th where a proclamation will be read and a photo will be taken in front of the cauldron. The celebration will continue at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex from about 6:30 with refreshments, music, a slideshow, door prizes and auction items. For me the greatest memory and legacy of the Games was that we came together as a Peninsula. Not a group of towns and cities competing with each other but as one community we came together to put on this international athletic, cultural event to showcase to the world what is special in the arctic north and ten years later we still have friends among the participants that experienced the life changing event right here in our back yard,” said Foster who still today is a member of the AWG Team Alaska board of director and just returned from the 2016 Games held in Greenland, “I guess it just got into my blood as some are prone to say once an AWG junkie, always an AWG junkie,” she laughed. “I hope everybody shows up to remember the great community effort that was put forth that ended up really putting the Kenai Peninsula on the map as a can do place where over 3,000 volunteers worked together to host a major international event. I hope all those that are still here and remember will turn out to rekindle that Spirit of the Games once again. As well as to honor the 20 some participants from the Peninsula who just returned from Greenland as participants in the 2016 Artic Winter Games, we’ll have prizes and chances to win some great prizes while raising some funds for Team Alaska,” said Tim Navarre. For more information, contact Becky at foster_6@hotmail.com or 262-1609.
