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Tiffany Hall on the sober-curious movement H ealth S ense
Sobriety without stigma
By Tiffany Hall Recover Alaska A stigma exists that sobriety is boring or antisocial, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. A growing number of Alaskans are deciding to live a sober lifestyle, which ranges from never drinking to intentionally drinking less, for reasons that range from choosing a healthier routine to spending less on extras.
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People are opting for fun and creative alcohol-free cocktails when out with friends and choosing to participate in alternative activities such as getting outdoors or catching up over a cup of coffee over the standard bar scene. Last month, in March, sobriety took center stage as Alaskans worked to break the stigma surrounding sobriety during Alaska’s Sobriety Awareness Month. Bars and restaurants across the state participated by featuring delicious alcohol-free beverages on menus.
Sobriety Awareness Month leads nicely into Alcohol Awareness Month in April. While sobriety awareness is really about breaking the stigma around choosing not to drink or choosing to drink less, this month is about Alaskans reevaluating their relationships with alcohol. Recover Alaska, a nonprofit, helps people do this by providing a free online screening tool and listing many resources on their website. Results are confidential.
Healthy living and intentional choices continue to drive a sober-curious movement across the country year-round. Nearly 40% of Alaska adults report not drinking, while thousands more are actively reducing their alcohol use through dry weekends and months or just skipping a drink now and then, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. While people increasingly think more about their alcohol use, so do bars and restaurants. Many are branching off from only having dusty bottles of O’Douls on hand to creating hand-crafted cocktails that are not only tasty but are completely buzz-free.
For example, in Fairbanks, the Pump House has a mocktail menu with zero-proof cocktails they’re happy to shake up for you. First on the menu is On the Beach, a bubbly and tart drink made with fresh raspberries, orange and lime juices and topped with Sprite. The Reviver is on the fresher side, made Non-alcohol mocktails are a popular option at many Alaska bars and restaurants.
with pineapple juice, ginger simple syrup and fresh mint. A third option for those looking for something tropical is the Cranpina which includes orange, pineapple, cranberry and grapefruit juices with coconut syrup.
No alcohol-free drinks on the menu? Bartenders say when in doubt, just ask! Many are prepared to make an alcohol-free version of popular cocktails or have their own go-to drink that may not be on the menu.
Many people who choose not to drink, or drink less, report experiencing better moods, sleeping better, better skin and many other benefits. So don’t let the misconceptions of the past surrounding sobriety deter you from ordering a buzz-free Old Fashioned on the rocks!
Tiffany Hall is executive director of Recover Alaska, a multi-sector action group pursuing a solutions-based approach to reduce excessive alcohol use and harms across the state. Its vision is for Alaskans to live free from the consequences of alcohol misuse and be empowered to achieve their full potential.
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Krystopher Byfuglien graduated from Tri-Valley School in 2014. He is a paramedic in Texas, working on a master’s degree in biomedical science and planning on applying to medical school to become a doctor. Photo courtesy Tina Graham
Small school, big impact
Healy sprouted many students who entered health professions
By Kris Capps Alaska Pulse Monthly W hen Krystopher Byfuglien was a freshman at TriValley School in Healy, he thought he would probably pursue law as a career. Then he took an emergency trauma technician training intensive taught by the Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Department.
“I quickly found that medicine was much more rewarding,” he said. Today, he works as a paramedic in Texas, is about to earn a master’s degree in biomedical science and then intends to apply to medical school.
He remembers exactly when he made that career choice. Shortly after completing the ETT course, he answered a 911 call that required him to do CPR in a real life situation for the first time. “I will never forget Rusty (Fire Chief Rusty Lasell) looking at me and telling me the only thing keeping the patient alive was me compressing the bag valve mask,” Byfuglien said. “By the time we reached Clear airstrip, I had worn a hole through my glove.
“After that call, I knew my future was in medicine.”
Those ETT classes generated a long list of students who went on to become physician assistants, emergency medical technicians, nurses, and paramedics. Two graduates became medical doctors. Others went on to positions at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, Mary C. Demientieff Health Clinic in Nenana, Siddall Medical Clinic at Clear Air Force Station, Canyon Clinic in the Denali area, Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center and more.
And while they were still in high school, those new ETT graduates revitalized the Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Department, bringing in new energy, fresh enthusiasm and many more volunteers.
Rob Graham: Helped get it started Rob Graham helped implement that ETT collaboration with the school, just before he became the fire chief himself in 2014.
He retired from that position last year to pursue a ministry in another
— Mikana Halloran
Mikana Halloran graduated from Tri-Valley School in 2006. She is a full time critical care flight paramedic with the Alaska Army Guard. Photo courtesy Mikana Halloran
Rob Graham during a recent wildfire. Photo courtesy Rob Graham
state. He’s a 1995 graduate of TriValley School.
He started volunteering at the fire hall in 2004 because he saw a desperate need for volunteers. The clinic was not accepting some emergency calls, he said, so every call took a guaranteed five or six hours, driving the patient to Fairbanks.
One day, he answered an emergency medical call and transported the victim to medical care as fast as possible.
“I felt really helpless and told myself I never want to be in that position again,” he said. “So I took an EMT class.”
When he responded to those calls, knowing what he was doing, he realized he cared more about people than their belongings. So he focused on emergency medicine instead of firefighting. He became the department’s EMS director.
“We are showing up on somebody’s worst day of their life,” he said. He treats each person the way he would Mikana Halloran also participates in medevacs throughout Alaska. Photo courtesy Mikana Halloran
want someone to treat his own mother or grandparents.
“We always say we wish no harm on anyone, but if it does happen, we are glad we are on shift,” he added.
Mikana Halloran: Flight paramedic Some graduates chose the medical profession for personal reasons.
Mikana Halloran graduated from TriValley School in 2006. She is a full time Army critical care flight paramedic in the Army National Guard, stationed in Anchorage. She was inspired to choose this career by her patriotic family and by current events, particularly 9/11.
“I was an eighth grader in New York state when I watched in real time as 2,996 souls were lost to a violent act of terrorism,” she said. “The incredible acts of selfless service, bravery, and heroism of service members and first responders on that day and in the many Shelby Townsend is an EMT3, who started out learning ETT techniques in a high school class. She hopes to eventually become a K9 police officer. Here she is with Trooper, the dog she trains. Photo courtesy Shelby Townsend
years following is what inspired me to join the medical field and become part of the DUSTOFF legacy.”
DUSTOFF refers to the Army call sign for evacuating casualties from a combat zone. It’s an acronym that means Dedicated Unhesitating Service To Our Fighting Forces.
“Medics have an incredibly dynamic mission that is like no other,” she said. “We are trained to do everything from flying on unarmed UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter (MEDEVAC) into the teeth of battle to save the lives of wounded in war, to performing technical hoist rescues on injured hikers and hunters from the top of mountains here in Alaska.”
She has deployed to the Middle East, Germany and Mongolia.
Shelby Townsend: EMT Graduates of the first ETT collaboration in 2012 between the fire department and the school ended up saving the volunteer fire department. Here they proudly pose with then EMS director Rob Graham. Three of them are still in careers involving emergency medicine. Photo courtesy Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Department
Mylinda Cizmowski always wanted to work as a health care provider. Photo courtesy Mylinda Cizmowski
Shelby Townsend signed up for that ETT class at Tri-Valley School when she was a junior, and she continued emergency medical training after graduating high school in 2013.
She became a certified ETT in 2012 and worked her way up to EMT3, Firefighter 2, and became a captain at TriValley Volunteer Fire Department. She’s in Fairbanks now, in between jobs, but hoping to continue work in the emergency medical/firefighting field and also to eventually make the switch to law enforcement and become a K9 police officer.
The training comes in handy when you least expect it, she said.
“I was flying to an EMS conference in North Carolina when another passenger needed medical assistance on my flight,” she said. “Thanks to my training, I was able to help a fellow passenger.”
Mylinda Cizmowski: Physician assistant As long as she can remember, Mylinda Cizmowski wanted to become a health care provider. Those goals changed from wanting to work as a doctor, then as a nurse, to eventually becoming a physician assistant.
“I can’t remember the exact reason that I chose this profession,” the 2011 graduate of Tri-Valley School said..
“But it’s been a mixture of appreciating and respecting the work of John Winklemann in our small town of Healy, saving many people the highway miles and taking care of a lot of challenging cases right in my hometown.”
Dr. John Winklemann was a longtime physician in the Healy community, still known affectionately as Dr. John.
Cizmowski has always appreciated healthy living. Her grandfather died at the age of 51 of a heart attack.
“Still today, 22 years later, I think of him almost daily,” she said. “No one should die in their 50s of a heart attack, no one in their 20s should lose their parents to a mostly preventable disease.” Today, her passion is preventive medicine. She loves teaching people about the healthy foods to put in their bodies, the daily exercise that protects their joints, muscles, heart, lungs, the routine screenings that find early disease and the vaccines that prevent disease.
She is also passionate about mental health, screening for it, and always holding open and honest discussions about it.
“One of my classmates in PA school took his own life during our first year, and shortly after, two others,” she said. “Three people in a matter of six months.”
That is where she learned that no one knows the battles individuals are going through.
“I am so fortunate and blessed to be in this role where I can have raw and
Cora Braun grew up on the outskirts of Healy and is now a physical therapist who will soon join Patty Sanders’ practice in the Denali area. Photo courtesy Tim Melanick
honest conversations with patients and encourage them to take action in their own health,” she said.
She works at the Coalition Health Center in Fairbanks.
Cora Braun: Physical therapist Cora Braun graduated from Tri-Valley School in 2008 and is now a physical therapist, about to begin practice in the Denali area. During high school, she was an active participant in the after-school program Motion Sensors Dance Troupe, and that encouraged her interest in the human body and medical fields.
After her mother received physical therapy from local Denali therapist Patty Sanders, her mother suggested she consider physical therapy as a career.
“At first, I thought she just wanted some free therapy, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it could be a cool fit,” she said. “So I decided to major in kinesiology and pre-physical therapy at Western Washington University, and the more class
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Former fire chief Rob Graham (left) was instrumental in starting the ETT collaboration between the Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Department and Tri-Valley School. Now, current fire chief Brad Randall (right) spearheads the program. Photo courtesy Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Department
es I took, the more I liked it.” You never know And then there’s the story about high schooler Ben Brown, who recently got certified as an ETT at a class in his own neighborhood, at the McKinley Volunteer Fire Department. The first 911 call he responded to was for his own little sister, who had fainted.
Byfuglien, the paramedic in Texas, had something similar happen on one of his first days of ETT training. In the school hallway, a teacher collapsed, mid-conversation, reaching out to him as she fell to the floor.
The lessons learned along this journey to a medical career are invaluable, he said.
“I have watched countless medical professionals advocate fearlessly and relentlessly for their patients,” he said. “This has taught me the singular lesson that a health care providers’ job is first and foremost to care for their patient, and I have tried my best to emulate their valiant efforts.”
“Once I am a doctor,” he added. “I intend on serving rural and underserved communities like Healy. Working as an ETT and a volunteer with Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Department showed me how rewarding it is to serve and be relied upon by your neighbors and what a positive impact you can have on your community when you are willing to serve.”
Contact Alaska Pulse Monthly staff writer Kris Capps at 459-7546. Email her at kcapps@AlaskaPulse.com
