[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13584]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                    CONGRATULATING PATRICIA ZULKOSKY

 Mr. BEGICH. Mr. President, I wish to recognize Patricia 
Zulkosky for her outstanding years of service to the State of Alaska 
and congratulate her on the occasion of her retirement from the 
Department of Juvenile Justice.
  Born into and raised by a large Polish family in northern Minnesota, 
Patricia moved to Alaska in 1978, making her home in the western tundra 
community of Bethel. After quickly falling in love with the Yup'ik 
Eskimo and rural Alaska lifestyle, she took to subsistence fishing and 
gathering. Patricia built lifelong friendships in Alaska. After 6 
years, she began her family by welcoming the arrival of her first and 
only daughter, Tiffany.
  Patricia started working for the State of Alaska in 1985 as a clerk 
typist for Alaska Public Health Nursing, but it wasn't until Patricia 
was hired by the Department of Juvenile Justice in December 1988 that 
she would come to know her passion for working with troubled youth and 
the families of rural Alaska. Hired as a youth counselor, Patricia's 
work ethic, commitment, and enthusiasm would quickly help her move up 
in the ranks. Not letting life get in the way, Patricia pursued her 
bachelor's degree in social work while being a single mom of a young 
daughter and working several other jobs to make ends meet.
  After graduating in 1996, she returned to Alaska fulltime where she 
would hold supervisory positions before becoming the Bethel Youth 
Facility superintendent. Under her leadership as superintendent, the 
Bethel Youth Facility has become an exemplary facility in Alaska for 
utilizing subsistence ways of life as a form of treatment. They have 
successfully hosted a community-based Cultural Heritage Week and begun 
to undergo a long-planned expansion. Patricia's love of community, 
culture, and hard work has resulted in a public service career that 
exemplifies the Alaska and American dream.
  I would like to extend my deepest appreciation to Patricia for her 
many years of service to the people she has come to call family. I wish 
the absolute best for her and her family as they begin this next stage 
in their lives.

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