The Nikiski Fire Department is raising money in a unique way: growing mustaches. The department is raising money with its first non-annual Merry Christmas Mustache fundraiser.
The proceeds will go to the Nikiski Senior Center to support its goal of giving Christmas stockings to people who will be alone during Christmas. The stockings are funded by local businesses and organized by BK Kivi at the senior center.

Nikiski Fire Department personnel responded to a fire at a residence off of Duke Street on Saturday morning. According to information provided by the department, units arrived on the scene to find that a mobile home had caught fire and burned to the ground sometime during the night.

Upon investigation, the body of a deceased male was located near the mobile home. Alaska State Troopers have identified the man as the owner of the residence, Timothy Blaine, age 54.

According to troopers, Blaine’s body will be sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for examination.

FAIRBANKS (AP) — Returning to Alaska from a stay in Honduras this summer, LindaMae Scolman carried back a large plastic container of brilliantly hued, papier mache bowls and plates.

The neatly crafted containers are the result of one of several programs Scolman, a Zion Lutheran Church lay minister, has initiated in the Central American country since she first visited there almost two decades ago with her Honduran-born mother.

Dane Myers remembers attending Christmas Comes to Kenai when he was a kid. When he and his wife Bee moved back to Kenai last year, they wanted to make sure Friday’s festivities were included in their yearly rituals.

“We turned it into one of our family traditions,” Dane said.

Now 28, he saw the joy in his two sons’ eyes as they met the one and only Santa Claus and later as their eyes met the brightly shining lights of the annual parade,  illuminating the cold November air. Those are memories Dane still holds close from his youth.