Saturday we attended a long planned, super secret, surprise birthday party for my old friend Donna Church in our former community of Copper Center, Alaska. We had a wonderful time renewing friendships, catching up on news and eating authentic home made pot-luck food. Our visit brought back many memories of raising our children and working in this wilderness neighborhood during the late 1970′s through early 1990′s. What we miss most, besides the use of the resident fish wheel, are the people. Warm, generous, tough, hard-working, the people of the Copper River Basin are the best of the best. We love and cherish our old friends and neighbors.
Gail Niebrugge, Alaskan artist
