Volunteers In Service To America – VISTA in Alaska's Bush

In the fall of 1967, two dazed young women deplaned and were left on the riverbank of the Kotlik Slough, a Yukon River tributary emptying into the Bering Sea. The girls stood, confused, among their gear outside the Bureau of Indian Affairs School where we lived and taught. They'd recently completed training with VISTA — John Kennedy and Sargent Shriver's continental U.S. counterpart of America's worldwide Peace Corps, both fighting poverty.
The Village Council had not been notified of their arrival date, so Joan, a nurse from New York, and Veronica, a recent graduate from Penn State, stood forlorn until we invited them in for coffee and introductions. Presently the village chief appeared to escort them to their quarters in the recently vacated Catholic Church, a wooden structure ill-equipped to protect them from the Arctic winter they faced. Their mission was vague. The council's application for their services said simply, "We need help."
At that point I felt strongly that those "training" volunteers for Alaska's bush sorely needed to visit one or two villages.
Joan and Veronica decided to organize a Head Start program, but lacked furniture, supplies and background to teach 4-year-olds. So we rounded up all surplus and in any way useful equipment, materials and guidebooks. I put my primary classroom library books on a rotating loan for their use. All these as well as juice, graham crackers, Pilot Bread (large, thick, round crackers) and peanut butter for midmorning snacks.
Joan and Veronica were frequent visitors in our quarters and often were invited to our dinner table, because their personal groceries left a lot to be desired. The girls were grateful for our shower and electricity for their hair dryer and iron, because the old church had neither running water nor power. Personally, it was a great treat to have two females in my life who understood my "Lower '48" experiences. There were cultural differences; they were both Yankees, I had a Southern upbringing. Veronica inquired if Southerners put pickles in everything! She gave up my ever learning to play Bridge, so we settled for a winter-long, four-handed Hearts competition instead.
Joan's nursing training was a very real asset to the entire village. But she never got over losing a toddler who was scalded when she backed into the native mother's tub of boiling laundry water. It took two hours for a chartered plane to arrive and the child died in Joan's arms in flight to the nearest Alaska Native Hospital – an hour away.
Joan's medical training spared one 10-year-old from paralysis when he landed on his neck after a 20-foot fall. His brother walked him to our door, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. Joan's knowledge and all-night vigil in our living room calmed everyone.
Joan remains a friend and correspondent these 42 years, as does Maggie, who was in the 1968 VISTA team.
Maggie, a petite, red-headed art major from Virginia, and Carol, a nurse from Florida, settled into the Head Start program and health services begun by the previous team. Again, they found a home away from their church housing in our quarters, with the shower and a caring ear during bouts of homesickness.
Maggie left for her Christmas wedding before her fellow shipped out to Vietnam.
Carol tried valiantly to live and work with Maggie's replacement, but took a VISTA transfer by Valentine's Day.
Agnes was not interested in 4-year-old Head Start children, but in teenage boys. Her interest in native adults centered on her determination to marry a young native man.
Carol's replacement, Margaret, 62 and very serious about her service, also found she was unable to live with Agnes. Margaret left as escort to a mental patient, a normally placid young woman who vacillated between thinking she was Jesus and becoming violent. As she waited beside Margaret for the pilot to climb aboard, the girl grabbed Margaret's throat and hair in death grips. Village police bound her hands in front, but I had visions of the girl reaching up, encircling the pilot's neck, causing them to crash. So she was stowed in the rear of the back seat with her hands tied behind her. The poor girl struggled and snarled, as they were airborne.
Head Start ended with Margaret's departure. Agnes remained in the village alone.

Linda Edwards is a member of Morganton Writers Group. Her VISTA encounters were in the fifth and sixth years of her 23 years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska.
Writer's NOTE: Shriver was the driving force creating the Peace Corps in 1961. Kennedy envisioned national service in 1963. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act creating VISTA in 1964.As part of VISTA in North Carolina, 25,000 presently help meet local needs in Senior Corps-Foster Grandparents, Americorps and Learn & Serve.