10/08/2003

From: alra@governance.net
Subject: Pilgrim Family Emergency Airlift Continues


Land Rights Network
American Land Rights Association
PO Box 400 – Battle Ground, WA 98604
Phone: 360-687-3087 – Fax: 360-687-2973 – E-mail: alra@landrights.org or
alra@governance.net  Web Address: http://www.landrights.org 
Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE – Washington, DC 20003
Phone: 202-210-2357 – Fax: 202-543-7126 – E-mail: landrightsnet@aol.com





Additional help is needed to supply the Pilgrim Family.

As with the Berlin Airlift 1948, the people of Alaska and across America are responding favorably to the Pilgrim Airlift in Alaska.  But we have a long way to go.  The Berlin Airlift had to go on for eleven months until the Soviets backed down.  

The Pilgrim Airlift will not last as long but it may go on for a while.  Supplies are being gathered at the various locations.  There has been an outpouring of support.  Some pilots have volunteered to help.  One flight will take place today (Wednesday).

But it’s a big job.  

The Park Service continues to blockade the McCarthy Creek Road into the Pilgrim homestead.  This fight is about access.  It is a fight for every rancher, prospector, miner, forestry advocate, off-highway and recreation advocate.  It is a fight for visitors who want to see the glory of their national parks.

It is a fight for all the promises to be honored that were made by the Senators and Congressmen who promised access to inholdings when the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was passed in 1980.  Some of that law applies to all inholdings and access rights across America.   It is fight for legitimate RS 2477 Rights-Of-Way.  It is fight against a giant bureaucracy that no longer thinks they are responsible to the people of America.

The Pilgrim Airlift offers every American an opportunity to strike back peacefully at a giant bureaucracy that is trying to take America’s parks away from the people.

And it is an opportunity to save a family in desperate need.  The Pilgrim Family home burned to the ground last spring.  Nearly all of their winter supplies and clothes went up in flames.

Besides food, feed and other supplies, money is needed to pay for the airlift and some of the supplies.  This is not a handout.  The Pilgrims are very good at taking care of themselves.  But between the fire and the Park Service blockade, they face some stiff odds.

They’ve had to endure the nightmare of armed Park Service S.W.A.T. members on their property and around their house for days on end.  

It is likely the Pilgrim Airlift will go on for a while.  

The Pilgrim Family Airlift officially begins Saturday and Sunday, October 11-12, weather permitting.  Supplies including food, money, and materials must be gathered at three locations, Fairbanks, Anchorage and Glennallen-Copper Center by Thursday, October 9th.  They will then be trucked to McCarthy.  

Volunteer pilots are needed to ferry the flyable supplies from McCarthy into the Pilgrim Family Marvelous Millsite in upper McCarthy Creek Valley.  Planes and possibly trucks are needed to shuttle supplies out to McCarthy for the airlift to the Pilgrim Homestead.  All of this is weather permitting.  Were in a race against the weather.

Anyone who can fly a load or can somehow get a load to McCarthy should call the Collection Points below to make arrangements to pick up donations.

THIS  IS  AN  EMERGENCY  AND  WE  CAN’T  POSSIBLY  GET  ALL  THE  SUPPLIES THAT  ARE  NEEDED  TO  FIX   UP  WINTER  QUARTERS  WITH  THIS  AIRLIFT.    THAT  CAN  ONLY  COME  WITH THE  PARK  SERVICE  COMING  TO  THEIR  SENSES  AND  STOPPING  THIS HEARTLESS  WAR  AGAINST THIS FAMILY.  

The Pilgrim family is a mother, father and 15 children, they youngest less than a year old. Their needs are extraordinary.  If they had not had to deal with Park Service harassment and its road blockade all summer as well as the fire they would be much farther along in taking care of themselves.  

Much of the material that is needed is not flyable and will have to be taken in some other way.   If the Park Service continues their access blockade, we may have to find parachutes or helicopters for the big stuff.   Small aircraft cannot do the whole job.   Time will tell if the Park Service can show that it is compassionate or is just the top down command and control bureaucracy they appear to be.

The central place for fuel, supplies, and food to be received and stockpiled for airlift to the Pilgrims at Marvelous Millsite in upper McCarthy Creek valley will be at the McCarthy B&B hanger on the McCarthy WEST airstrip located off the Mile 58.5 turnoff across from the National Park Service closed Kiosk.  Donated supplies will be received there.  Call John Adams at 554-4433 or 554-1133(cell) for more information.

In McCarthy the local coordinator of Airlift logistics is:  Laurie Rowland at 554-4498.

When it comes time for an airlift flight to take off, the goods will be transferred by local volunteers in McCarthy across the footbridge with four-wheelers and pickups to the McCarthy state airport.  

This will be an expensive rescue effort.  Please do your part by sending a contribution for $25, $50, $75, $100, $500, $ 1,000 or whatever you can afford to the McCarthy-Kennicott Community Church or MKCC to meet some of the family’s immediate needs.   Right now that is food, sleeping bags, fuel and feed for the animals.

Make a notation on the check or money order that it is for the Pilgrim Fund. Mail to McCarthy-Kennicott Community Church, McCarthy #42, PO Box MXY, Glennallen, Alaska 99588. For more information, call Rick Kenyon, pastor (also the editor of the local Wrangell-St Elias News) at (907) 554-4454.

Flights by Wrangell Air, McCarthy Air and volunteer pilots will shuttle the supplies between the McCarthy State Airport and the Pilgrims (a 15 minute flight one way) as needed and as donations received for flight costs allow.

McCarthy local residents and businesses have agreed to make space available for volunteer pilots to stay at no charge (must bring your own sleeping bags).  The McCarthy-Kennicott Community Church has made its heated basement available as overflow if necessary.  Presently, no other facilities are open for food and lodging.  That may change if there is a massive outpouring of interest and participation.

LOCAL COLLECTION POINTS – COORDINATORS

Volunteers are needed to get the supplies by truck from some collection points to Copper Center or McCarthy.  Please call Laurie Rowland at 554-4498 if you can help.

Copper Center -- Please drop off donated goods at Copper Basin Assembly of God, Mile 112 Richardson Hwy.  Call Clarence Catledge at (907) 822-5523.
  
Glennallen - Please drop off donated goods at Glennallen Quick Stop Truck Stop (next to Homestead Supply) – Kathy Stratton (822-5545)    

Wasilla – Please drop off donated goods at home of Dan & Pat Sentz, 901 McAdoo Way, Wasilla (376-4574).

Anchorage – Please drop off donated goods at 201 Barrow Street (RA Kreig & Associates), contact Mary Duville, 276-2025 

Fairbanks – Materials, food, money and other supplies are to be dropped off at Summit Logistics, 3453 Truck St, Fairbanks, Alaska.  The Coordinator is Warren Smith at (907) 456-3733.  Drop off material between 8 and 5 weekdays.  A volunteer is needed to truck the supplies to the Glennallen-Copper Center collection point where it will be trucked in to McCarthy and prepared for the flight in to the Pilgrim Family.

Emergency Relief Supplies:  (A larger list including construction supplies to winterize their living quarters is at www.landrights.org/ak

We have attached a list of the items needed by the Pilgrim Family.  Items must be on the following list to be brought in.     See website for updates:   www.landrights.org/ak  
 

 
Sleeping Bags (Go to –20% and if possible, zip together).

Lewis Chain Saw Winch (essential for horses, wagon, logs, building, moving rock etc.)

Food staples – beans, rice, flour, sugar, etc

Dried Milk – Powdered or Liquid Boxed Milk.

Non-perishable foods, meats etc.

Cloth Diapers.

Liquid Tide Soap.

Material for winter women’s dresses.

Good quality backpacks for carrying supplies.

Cross country work skis.

Artic Coats (socks, gloves, snow suits for the little children).

Winter Boots and Hiking Boots.  Sizes 4,5,6,7,9,9,10,10, 11, 11, and 12.

Dog Food (50 bags)  

Hay for the horses.   Some hay is critical as the horses are declining.  They are short of food.  A total of 1,000 bales are needed for the winter.

Axel for Track Machine (Bombadeer Type).

Diesel Fuel and gas for generators, snow machines and tools.

Chainsaws.

First Aid Supplies.

Fire Extinguishers.
 



Thank you for any help you can give.

Chuck Cushman

PS.  The airlift flights by themselves will be expensive.  Please send your contribution for whatever you can afford to McCarthy-Kennicott Community Church, McCarthy #42, PO Box MXY, Glennallen, Alaska 99588.  Be sure to mark your check “Pilgrim Fund.” For more information, call Rick Kenyon, pastor (also the editor of the local Wrangell-St Elias News) at (907) 554-4454.







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