[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 161 (Thursday, September 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5700-S5701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      RECOGNIZING IGIUGIG, ALASKA

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is Thursday, and as you know, it is 
one of my favorite times of the week.
  The Presiding Officer has the good fortune of listening to a number 
of the ``Alaskan of the Week'' speeches when I get to come down to the 
floor--typically every Thursday--to talk about a person or group of 
people who are doing great things for my State. As I said, so many of 
my colleagues here--even some of the reporters--know this is the person 
we call our Alaskan of the Week, but sometimes we call them our 
Alaskans of the Week.
  This week, we are going plural in a big way. This week, we are 
recognizing an entire community for how this community--the whole 
community--banded together to literally help save a young child who was 
sick and needed medical attention.
  Before I get into the story, let me say that, in Alaska, community is 
everything. Living in one of the most magnificent places in the world 
is not without its challenges. We depend on each other. Communities 
often come together to help each other. Typically, in our rural 
communities, traditional knowledge is critical and so is hard-won 
ingenuity and determination to overcome many of the challenges in 
living in the great State of Alaska.
  I would like to transport you to one of those communities. It is the 
village of Igiugig in Southwest Alaska. Rich in Native traditions, 
Igiugig is home to around 70 year-round residents, growing to over 200 
in the summer months.
  The name ``Igiugig'' originated from a Yupik word meaning ``like a 
throat that swallows water,'' referring to the village's location where 
the Kvichak River meets Iliamna.
  Going all the way back to the purchase of Alaska from Russia over 150 
years ago, Igiugig has maintained a commercial fishing and subsistence-
based economy. They have been incredibly innovative with alternative 
energy there--wind and hydro--and most importantly, this community has 
maintained a strong sense of connection with each other, which is so 
important for communities like this. This is evidenced by what happened 
just a few weeks ago when a young girl needed to be airlifted out of 
the community to Anchorage--some 250 miles away--for medical help, and 
nearly every member of the community pitched in to help.
  What happened? Here is what happened. On the night of August 28--so 
about 3 or 4 weeks ago--around 11:30 a.m., the Tribal administrator and 
village council vice president Karl Hill was sitting at home when he 
saw the LifeMed Alaska flight, which he knew was coming in to help this 
young girl, circling above the small runway.
  Over 200 of our communities aren't connected by roads. They aren't 
connected by roads, so a lot of them have very small airports and 
landing strips.
  Karl got this phone call when the pilot was above circling. There was 
a problem with the runway lights; they weren't working. He ran out to 
the airport to try to turn the lights on manually. That didn't work, so 
he got into his plane--he was one of only two pilots in the village 
with a plane. He got on the plane just to talk to the pilot, who was 
circling above, over the headset. That pilot who was on the medevac 
flight told him he was getting low on fuel. He wouldn't be able to 
circle much longer, and he couldn't land. But this young girl needed 
help as soon as possible.
  In so many of our Native communities and rural communities, there is 
no hospital. There is barely even a medical clinic sometimes. So she 
needed to be medevacked.
  While Karl communicated with the pilot over his headset, other 
community members began calling people in the community asking for 
help. Ida Nelson made calls and jumped on her four-wheeler and headed 
to the airport. Community leader Christina Salmon, whose sister is 
Alexanna Salmon--who was our Alaskan of the Week in 2017, by the way--
made around 32 phone calls. Health aide Amanda Bybee, Jeff Bringhurst, 
and so many others started calling and rallying this community, and 
they all came out. They all came out in any kind of vehicle with lights 
that they had--trucks, cars, ATVs, kids on four-wheelers, many still in 
their pajamas. This was in the middle of the night. They arrived to 
provide enough light on the runway for the pilot to see the landing 
strip. They staggered the vehicles facing east and running the whole 
length of the runway, lighting the medevac pilot's way.
  They waited intensely. Ida Nelson told a reporter:

       I was anxious and nervous. . . . I was like, ``so what if 
     that was my baby (waiting for that) plane?'' What if it was 
     my young girl who needed lifesaving help?

  They waited for the plane to touch down, for the girl to be 
transferred, and for the plane to take off again. All of this happened 
with the lights provided by the community in a makeshift lighting of 
the runway.
  By this time, it was around a little past 1:30, closer to 2 o'clock, 
but when the plane took off, the community, of course, was in a 
celebratory mood.
  ``We were pumped up,'' Karl Hill said. ``It was really an amazing 
feat that we were able to pull together so quickly'' in the middle of 
the night. He added, ``It was really a nice evening.''
  That young girl who needed to be medevacked and airlifted in 
Anchorage is now back in the community, and she has recovered, thank 
God.
  LifeMed Alaska, which provided the medevac, posted a photo on social 
media with the following caption: ``What appears to be a blurry, dark 
photo is actually a view of what an amazing community can do with a lot 
of determination,'' lighting a runway, saving a life. Indeed.
  We are so proud to be a State full of such tight-knit communities 
that work together every day to make Alaska so special. We are 
particularly proud as we recount the events of August 28 in Igiugig and 
so grateful to everyone in the community who came out in the middle of 
the night, some in their pajamas, to make sure that young girl could 
get the medical help she needed.
  Thank you to Igiugig for being such an amazing community with great 
determination, great heart, and great innovation. Congratulations to 
all of you for being our Alaskans of the Week.

[[Page S5701]]

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

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