The Juneau Douglas High School hockey team spent the weekend filling and delivering sandbags to homeowners in the Mendenhall Valley, where a record-breaking glacial outburst flood damaged nearly 300 homes in August.
Over the last two weekends, the team distributed more than 3,100 sandbags to more than 30 households, according to hockey mom Andrea Petrie, who coordinated the distribution.
Head coach Matt Boline said they shoveled tens of thousands of pounds of sand.
“That’s a lot of time saved in the gym. And they’re out here helping the community in the process,” he said.
Boline also said the work was an especially good team-building activity as students navigate the Juneau School District consolidation. Some students moved from the former Thunder Mountain High School in the Valley to Juneau-Douglas High School Yadaa.at Kalé downtown this school year.
“With the schools combining and a lot of the attention focused downtown at JDHS, people maybe aren’t thinking about the Valley so much from down there, but all the kids are coming from there,” Boline said. “We have a lot of families, hockey families that live here.”
The sandbags and the sand to fill them were provided by community member Noah Teshner. Debbie Penrose Fischer, whose house flooded this year, also helped to coordinate the deliveries.