I had to share this - the link below will take you some pics of a small community in Alaska who’s children recently received Sweetone whistles. You’ll see two “albums” at the link. One is pics of the community itself, the other is pics of the kids playing their whistles. Here’s a little info on the community:
"Unalakleet Alaska is a village of about 700 people, and is located along the Bering Sea coast in Northwest Alaska. It is a traditionally Alaskan Native community of Yupiks and Inupiats, and has been inhabited for over 2000 years. There are about 190 students from preschool to grade 12, and over 95% are Alaska Native.
Unalakleet is considered to be a “bush” community, and is accessible only by small aircraft. The landscape consists of tundra, hills, rivers, and trees. The people live a mostly subsistence lifestyle where they rely heavily on fishing for king and silver salmon, hunting moose, caribou, and also beluga whales and seals.Unalakleet is best known for the Iditarod dog race. Every March dog teams race over 1000 miles from Anchorage to Nome. Unalakleet is a required checkpoint along the race, which means that all dog teams and mushers are required to stop. While in Unalakleet veterinarians check the dogs, the dogs are fed, and the racers might stay to get some needed rest. The Unalakleet school children often take “field trips” to the checkpoint. Very few outsiders come to the village, but during Iditarod many national and international media crews visit Unalakleet.
The elementary children make their own autograph books during Iditarod, and ask all the mushers and news crews to sign the book and to write their home town or country.
…each student has his or her own whistle to keep. We will spend this year learning how to play the whistles in music class. We have very few extracurricular activities in Unalakleet due to the small size and remoteness, so the pennywhistles are greatly appreciated!"
