Now living in Herrin, Illinois,
Vaughn - who learned the ways of the Haida Tribe and the beauty
and bounty of the surrounding islands and waters of Southeast
Alaska - said she first got interested in motorcycles at age
10. "My first bike was a Suzuki RM100 and within a couple
of hours I was trying to stand up on the seat. My Father thought
that my lack of fear could be put to better use in an organized
environment so he signed me up to start racing. Eventually I
moved on to quad racing and then became interested in street
bikes."
Her over-all inspiration comes
from the women in her family. Vaughn said, "Gender blurring
is a necessity in the Alaska bush - to survive everyone has to
be able to do the task at hand." She said, "A stereotypical
family could not function in the remote areas of Alaska and it
is more the women doing what would be perceived as men's work
than it is the other way around. If you are female and your family
fishes, you fish. The same hold true for canneries, logging and
even the oil fields. I take strength in the fact that I can trace
my maternal roots back through seven generations." Vaughn
said, "My Great-Great Grandmother ran a, let's say, "boarding
house" so the entrepreneurial spirit is in my genes."
- More...
Tuesday - April 19, 2005
Monday's Feature
Story
 Ketchikan: "Cleanup
Ketchikan Day" brings sense of satisfaction by Nancy
Coggins - "I haven't had this much fun since I was a kid," exclaimed
Richard Monrean during "Cleanup Ketchikan Day" at the
7-mile rock pit on Ward Lake Road. Most of the participants expressed
a sense of satisfaction in helping to clean up the garbage left
behind by both shooters using these areas for target practice
instead of a rifle range and residents who would rather push
something over the rocky cliff than use the free landfill.
Volunteers from 6-years-old
and up, including Boy Scouts and one man who came from Prince
of Wales, worked at several sites along this road clearing them
of innumerable items such as empty shells, broken "clay"
pigeons that weren't made of real clay for the sake of the environment,
broken bottle glass, old TVs, shot-up aluminum cans, Styrofoam,
plastic bags, plastic ammunition boxes, old tires, and wire cords.
Added to the mess, there were nails remaining when pallets were
burned for bonfires. One van suffered a flat tire from one of
those nails. - More
& Photo Gallery...
Monday - April 18, 2005
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