Nancy B King

L and I attended four Alaska State 1A basketball championship games—the Kivalina boy’s and girl’s teams. Both teams played with heart. One of their high school teachers is one of my Stock Market Game teachers.

A different state tournament—Sunday afternoon, I went with a friend to Palmer to see her grandson play in the state championship hockey tournament for 8 to 10 year olds. It was an Anchorage team against a Fairbanks team. Fairbanks won. Kerry Weiland dropped the ceremonial puck and awarded the metals and the trophy. Both team players got individual pictures taken with her; it was a big deal since she is from Palmer and played on the Olympic USA Women’s hockey team.

The Sunday before, I had a great time at Daughter’s book club meeting. They (and also, I) read Cold by Bill Streever. I particularly enjoyed hearing about his writing and publishing process. Yes, it was right on with my experience. Cold has been a great read! Now, I’m reading The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes. I’m hoping if the unthinkable disaster hits, it is not in the extreme cold or heat—I’ll take a lush, green temperate climate.

I’ve spent a lot of time the past several weeks studying and thinking about the impact of sovereign debt (Greece, Spain, Italy, France and U.S.), the U.S. healthcare bill and its effect on the economy and my health care, and the legal and illegal immigration concerns, and how all of these issues will impact my investing, accumulation of wealth, and self-sufficiency.  I’ve clarified my values and goals and have laid out a plan A and a plan B with possibilities for C and D. It’s amazing how strongly I feel about never, ever being a victim again! I have my investing strategies outlined with a list of action items. Taking thinking action is surviving.

In the meantime, my Stock Market Game coordinator duties, investing, and educational therapy clients help keep me grounded and on task.

McQueen School in Kivalina is one of the Alaska schools choosing to benefit from the national Stock Market Game (SMG) program. (Click here for an outline map of Alaska and an explanation of the Stock Market Game program.) Dr. Ali Fant is using the program with the 10 students in her finance class to help them more completely understand economic, business, market, and investing concepts. Her students have invested in the companies that produce the products they know and use. The portfolios of two of her teams are out performing my SMG portfolio. Congratulations to McQueen School and the students in Dr. Fant’s finance class. McQueen School has 107 students in grades PK, K-12 and is part of the twelve-school Northwest Arctic Borough School District.

Kivalina, an Inupiat village, is located down the Northwest Coast of Alaska. It is 120 miles above the Arctic Circle and about 80 air miles northwest of Kotzebue, the largest town in the area. Kivalina sits at the tip of an 8-mile barrier reef located between the Chukchi Sea and a lagoon at the mouth of the Kivalina River. Use the following coordinates to locate it on your map: 67°43’8”N 164°29’32”W.

Kivalina has long, cold winters—check the temperature here—with an average snowfall of 55 inches. The Chuckchi Sea is frozen from November through June. In the winter Kivalina is accessible by air, sea, and land (snowmobiles—no roads beyond Kivalina). During the summer Kivalina is accessible only by sea and air. Bering Air connects Kivalina to Kotzebue with two flights per day carrying mail, groceries, and passengers. Passengers fly to Kotzebue then take connecting flights to other towns in the state—Nome, Barrow, Fairbanks, Anchorage. It is expensive to travel to and from Kivalina. A roundtrip ticket to Kotzebue is approximately $250, and a roundtrip ticket to Fairbanks is $1,052.

The first written acknowledgement of Kivalina—“Kivaulinagmut”—was in 1847 by Lt. Larenty Zagoskin, a member of the Imperial Russian Navy. The population of Kivalina is 97 percent Alaska Native. It is the only village in the region where people hunt the bowhead whale. According to the U.S. Census and the city website, approximately 300 people—78 households and 64 families—live in Kivalina. This small village has only 106 structures—86 are residential units.

Kivalina has no hotels, restaurants, movie theatres, or recreation centers. However, it does have a City Office/Tribal Office, U.S. Post Office, Episcopal Church, Friends Church, bingo hall, clinic, washeteria, school, and a general store. In addition, the city has an airport building, an armory building, a heavy equipment building, and an electric power plant. The small power plant generates electricity using fuel that arrives once a year during the summer by barge. The barge delivers bulk fuel and gas for the school, the store, and the power plant. The city water supply is stored in a 500,000 and a 670,000 gallon tank. These tanks are the only source of drinking water for most residents. The tanks are refilled each July and August from the Walik River. The city sewer system is so small it is unable to provide service to residential units except for the two or three teacher housing units.

For evening entertainment people attend Inupiaq dance practice every other night, go to church on Wednesday evenings, play bingo at the bingo hall, and participate in evening gym nights at the school. And play basketball and more basketball.

For the first time ever the boy’s and the girl’s basketball teams will play in the 1A state finals tournament in Anchorage. Both the girl’s and the boy’s teams won the district tournament in Kotzebue. The boys beat Kiana 40-35, and the girls beat Upriver 59-37. I will be at the Sullivan Arena Thursday, March 18^th at 5:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. for the quarter finals to cheer the Kivalina boy’s and girl’s teams to victory. May McQueen School have not only winning SMG investment portfolios, but also winning girl’s and boy’s basketball teams!

In the weeks to come, I will be spot lighting the other schools and locations that are participating in the Stock Market Game in Alaska.

Sixteen teachers in eight locations around the state of Alaska are using the Stock Market Game in their classrooms.

Currently, 102 teams of 3 to 5 students are actively managing their diversified portfolios of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Each team begins with an imaginary $100,000 in cash.

As of today, Team ZZ56 from South High School in Anchorage is the top high school team. The value of their portfolio stands at $112,051. These students have out performed the S&P 500 by 12.45% since they activated their team. Congratulations!

The 1st place team in the Middle School division belongs to Team A169 from Gruening Middle School in Anchorage. Congratulations to Team A169!

The Stock Market Game program is an interactive, real-life, online simulation tool for bringing economic, financial, and investment education to grade 4-12 students, post-secondary students, and adults. Students gain an understanding of how economies and markets work, the power of compounding, and the importance of research and understanding what they buy. In addition, they learn how changes in fiscal policy, monetary policy, economic activity, and international relations affect financial markets. The program also teaches and reinforces essential skills and concepts in math, language arts, social studies, and economics.

Nationally the Stock Market Game is a project of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIMFA) Foundation. In Alaska the program is administered by the Alaska Council on Economic Education.

This graphic of the Geography of a Recession by LaToya Egwueke presents a vivid picture of the growth of employment across the United States. It’s like, “Oh, wow.”

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 31 million people currently unemployed — that’s including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. “The Decline: The Geography of a Recession,” as created by labor writer LaToya Egwuekwe, serves as a vivid representation of just how much. Watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy from January 2007 — approximately one year before the start of the recession — to the most recent unemployment data available today. Original link: www.latoyaegwuekwe.com/geographyofarecession.html.

Last night I heard a great presentation by Dr. Jerene Mortensen, Greg’s Mortensen’s mother, about Greg’s continued work of building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

She has recently moved to Anchorage. What an interesting place this is to live—-the people, the art, the music, the creativity, the mountains, the outdoor activities, and all the rest!

She will be speaking Friday, March 12th at the Alaska World Affairs lunch—Three Cups of Tea: a Mother’s Perspective.