Kathy leaves behind a new community formed in the aftermath of her accident. Her recovery was made possible by a concerted effort of many different Native American tribes, led by Chief Darryl Frank, Mento Tribe and Mike Smith of the TCC, civic and government offices, including Governors Palin of Alaska and Blagojevich of Illinois, U.S. Senator Stevens of Alaska and State Senator Kookesh of Juneau, rescue and recovery experts Gene and Sandra Ralston of Idaho. Extensive fundraising by the Oak Park Community made the five week search for her and Travis Alexander possible and successful.
Her family is eternally grateful for her recovery.
Loss and Recovery
By Editorial
Published July 4, 2007
The story of the Memorial Day weekend canoe accident and drownings of 19-year-old Travis Alexander of
Fort
Yukon , 20-year-old Liza Lomando of East Meadow, N.Y., and 24-year-old Kathy Garrigan of
Oak Park, Ill. , will long be remembered with sadness.
The
Harding
Lake accident involving the three young workers with the Tribal Civilian Community Corps, a branch of AmeriCorps affiliated with Tanana Chiefs Conference based in Nenana, led to days of mourning, heroism and reminders of
Alaska ’s cruel side.
The recovery of Mr. Alexander’s body on Sunday and Ms. Garrigan’s body on Tuesday brought bitter-sweet closure to a weeks-long ordeal for these families and many members of our community. Hearts and prayers from a wide area continue to be extended to the families who lost their loved ones.
If a bright spot can be pulled from the tragedy it comes with recognition of the many volunteers, an outpouring of community donations and the unwavering effort of those with hands on boat motors and ropes, directly involved with the search and recovery effort coordinated by TCC.
People donated gasoline, handed over their valuable watercraft to complete strangers and gave precious time to the search effort. We witnessed the work in progress.
Enduring the elements, based at a temporary camp on the lake shore, volunteers engaged in slow, laborious work, criss-crossing the lake, pulling ropes hand-over-hand hour after hour. They returned night after night to their camp, all the time hoping for recovery and closure with a new day to come.
The technology of sonar — also in service as a result of generosity and compassion from an out-of-state volunteer — ultimately proved its worth and brought the desired result. What stands out, however, is not the technology but the volunteers behind it who never gave up in a search that must have at times felt utterly hopeless.
In the midst of this drudgery the workers may not have felt it, but their efforts were no less than heroic and our community owes them thanks.
The Harding Lake Recovery
By Ginger Placeres, Editor
The summer of 2007 brought unexpected tragedy to many of the staff at Tanana Chiefs Conference, but more so to the families of Travis Alexander, Kathleen Garrigan, and Liza Lomando. As many know by now, we faced a five-week ordeal recovering the bodies of the first two at Harding Lake 45 miles from Fairbanks. This recovery effort was spear-headed by Fairbanks staff and volunteers from the surrounding areas; at last count it involved some 488 people, including donors.
The logistics were immense. At any given time, there were as few as two boats n the water, performing drag methods, and as many as 12. Each boat carried a crew of three to five persons and rotated shifts for up to 15 hours a day. At one count, I saw as many as 11 tents at the beautiful shore site beside the northwest boat launch. At the close of our odyssey, I scoured multiple tablets of boat logs that included hundreds of names in repetition as they launched their crews time and again. The smell of camp fire on these tablets was distinct for several days after the volunteer list was compiled.
Twice weekly meetings were held on the 6th floor of the Chief Peter John Tribal Building, the main Fairbanks home of Tanana Chiefs Conference. As many as 12 oversaw different components: Mike Smith spent hundreds of hours on the water and communicating with sonar teams, the families, and staff; Jim Knopke was in charge of camp logistics, Don Shircel oversaw food necessities and the needs of the victims’ families; Jerry Woods, procurement; and I relayed any communication forward from these and other people.
The community of Fairbanks stepped forward in record time and donated money and supplies to support our volunteer efforts when the Alaska State Troopers pulled out after two weeks. Financial contributions came from as far away as Oak Park, Illinois, the hometown of Kathy, and from Juneau, Alaska, where a former Fort Yukon pastor now resides. His congregation kept close tabs of our web updates at www.tananachiefs.org and prayed regularly for the family and all involved.
There were so many involved, a few include the Eielson Air Force Dive Team, the CNS Dive Team, Kulis Air National Guard, the PAWS dog search team, the Seth Foundation, the Department of Fish & Game’s imaging sonar team with direction by Carl Pfisterer, among so many others. We are grateful for their expertise, time, and dedication; they spent countless hours scouring Harding Lake.
One individual displayed steadfast goodliness, and that’s Darrell Frank. He devoted the whole five weeks to the recovery and oversaw the entire camp and boat activity. When asked to take a break, Darrell opted to stay, working long hours and managing several people and personalities with strength and consistency. He faced more challenges than the rest of us because he was in the business of people management, in addition to recovery efforts with the many boats.
The most phenomenal portion of this experience comes from two Idaho volunteers, Gene and Sandy Ralston. The couple devotes their lives to recovery of drowning victims across the United States; the two at Harding Lake brought their totals to 52 recoveries so far. “Each recovery is like the first, we have to stop what we’re doing and just take a deep breath” Gene said that a ‘find’ almost renders all in the boat incapable of rational thought at first; they have to stop what they’re doing and absorb the adrenaline and emotion.
Gene and Sandy drove all their gear, at least $200,000 worth, from his home state of Idaho and although he must explain his operation for the fiftieth time to us, he is as patient as the first. We were fortunate to spend a couple of hours listening to both summarize their life’s work and the operation behind recovery at Harding Lake.
What looked like bright orange spots on his computer screen to those of us observing, to him displayed the characteristics of a drowning victim. He took the time to show us various kinds of ‘debris fields’ where he completed recoveries; one of the most disturbing and mortal visions was a set of twin males who rested within 20 feet on each other on a lake floor. It’s a testament of strength and courage to witness the dedication of the Ralstons.
Gene said the turnout after the final recovery, which was Kathy, was the most in number he has ever seen. Marion Garrigan, Kathy’s mother and a pillar of strength, said, “Kathy was always the last to leave” and she was not surprised that her beautiful daughter would be the last to be found. Kathy’s family spent much of their summer in Fairbanks; Tom Garrigan came back and forth from their home state of Illinois and was accompanied by nephew Bill O’Shea. Marian could be seen absorbed in deep conversation with Mardo Solomon, a Fort Yukon elder, or walking the beach side with daughter Rosemary.
One person felt that Kathy’s return must be imminent at the first sight of Marian, her mother, who arrived a week or so before Kathy’s recovery. Mardo Solomon listened as Marian said “Kathy would always come when I called her, or whistled for her.” Mardo told her it was important to do that, to call for her daughter, and Marian did. She described her daughter as a tall, vibrant woman who loved life and embraced many climates in her travels. “Her height aside, Kathy wasn’t afraid to throw on a pair of heels.”
She has three sisters back at home: Marie, Elizabeth, and Rosemary, along with newborn nephew, Thomas. Travis Alexander leaves a girlfriend and two young children in Fort Yukon, his parents are Gerald and Judy Alexander. They have a large extended family that are surely helping all to cope as is custom in a village. Liza Lomando was an only child, her mother Frances is thankful to all involved and often sent words of appreciation through Don Shircel.
Athough the workday resumes in Fairbanks, and life for the families involved, there are not quite words appropriate to summarize what occurred for three youth who spent a final weekend together. Strangers to us at first, they undoubtedly knit a larger web of compassion, love, and generosity that we will not understand for now, nor possibly know the effect until it’s all but a distant memory.
A Final Report Card
A Comminty Gathers
The ending of this sad story is not yet written as we write these words on Monday. Might Oak Park's Kathleen Garrigan still be found alive in Alaska after a Memorial Day weekend boating mishap? We can only hope and pray.
What we can say clearly at this moment, is that it is in such moments that community matters, that we prove for certain that Oak Park is a village of strong and generous hearts.
In the hours after word was received a week ago that Garrigan and two fellow Americorps volunteers were missing in Alaska, the e-mails flew, the phone calls rang out. And so by Wednesday evening, Ascension Church was filled for an impromptu prayer service with some 700 people attending. Over the past weekend, when it seemed possible that the formal state police search effort would be terminated, a fundraiser was created for Monday evening at the Carleton Hotel to raise cash to continue the search. A fund was also established at Community Bank to receive donations for the search.
We are certain that the Garrigans, a longtime South Oak Park family, feel enveloped and nourished by the love and concern of their neighbors.
Garrigan’s spirit celebrated at packed fundraiser Family, friends, teammates raise money for search
By ERICA MAGDA
Well over 500 of Kathleen Garrigan's family, friends, and teammates packed the Carleton Hotel ball room Monday evening. Garrigan's numerous sport jerseys draped the walls. The crowd's attention shifted toward the front of the room as live acoustic tunes began to resonate.
But before they began, Marian Garrigan wanted to say a few words.
"Who here has played softball with Kathy?" her mother asked. A big "whoot" came from a few girls.
"Who has danced with Kathy before?" The entire room raised their arms and chuckled at the outcome.
"Who here is related to Kathy?" Again, most in the room raised their arms.
The event was a celebration Kathleen Garrigan's life and a fundraiser to continue the search for her near Harding Lake in Alaska. The music was upbeat and the halls bright. Everyone was chatting and recalling stories of Garrigan as an energetic spirit that attracted many and as a woman who accomplished much in her life.
"I'd drive 3,000 miles for this. I'm in awe," Linda Deno, Garrigan's head volleyball coach at Saint Joseph's College, said of the event.
The team remembers Garrigan's positive attitude.
Her energy and spirit drew people toward her and brought her teammates together.
"If I was having a bad day she'd somehow put a smile on my face," Deno said.
One of her closest friends from college, Crystal Chocholek of Oak Park, said they were both "crazy" when they were together.
The two of them often stayed up all night and putting on pretend rock concerts outside their dorms for anyone to see.
"We would just act stupid," Chocholek said.
When they weren't playing bocce ball in their common area sports field at school, they would be driving their cars through the same field.
Garrigan is a jokester who likes to have her fun.
"She had a joke for everything," Deno said. "I know deep in my heart Kathy is going to come back in here and say, 'So, what's taking you so long to find me!'"
Garrigan's spirit and talent made her a crucial component in all of her sport teams.
"She was the pulse, the heartbeat of the team, the nucleus. She was a leader," said Colleen McShane of Oak Park, who is long-time friends with Marian Garrigan.
And she had the talent. Gretchen Kieckhefer, mother of one of Garrigan's teammate Jan, remembers her as an "unbelievable" softball player. "Nobody could hit her fast pitch," she said.
Even though she stood out on the field and courts, Garrigan was a team player. After practices, Deno recalled Garrigan staying to help the younger players.
The energy she carried made the sporting events so enjoyable, said Kristyn Corley, who played collegiate volleyball with Garrigan.
Before games the volleyball team would dance to pump everyone up and "she'd be right there in the middle," Corley said.
"She kept the team loose [and] made every day going to practice fun," Deno said.
Her light-hearted spirit made family life easier as well. One of four girls, her mother said she's the "frosting on my three-layer cake."
It's not just those close to Garrigan who adore her. She enticed everyone with her smile, jokes, and positive energy.
"You met her once and you loved her," McShane said.
"She walked into a room and everyone noticed. She was statuesque and full of devil," Kathleen Kinnare of Oak Park said.
Chocholek said she had so many friends on campus because "if you needed someone to talk to, you go to her," she said.
In only 24 years, Garrigan is considered a great success, her friends say.
"Many people say I wish I had done this or that, but she did it. She knew what she wanted to do," Kinnare said.
"Kathy was born with lots of gifts and she used them all," Kinnare said. "Whatever she did she did it well. She was so talented and so beautiful. She lived up to her 24 years."
With hundreds in attendance, McShane said that "the support is a total reflection of her personality."
Many were family members of the Garrigans who have lived in Oak Park for decades. "There are three generations of ties that are as tight as it gets. That's why you get this support. There's nothing like it," said Honey Kinnare Badger of River Forest.
"It makes me happy that she touched so many people's lives," Chocholek said of the attendance.
"We're overwhelmed with love," Marie Schabow, Garrigan's sister said of the event.
"This is a tribute to how everyone feels about her," Jean Mamoser said. "She'll live forever!"
Oak Park rallies around the Garrigan family
Fund created to aid search for missing AmeriCorps volunteer
By BILL DWYER
As the grim task of searching for Kathleen Garrigan enters its second week some 2,800 miles to the north, friends and family of the 24-year-old Oak Park woman continue to rally around her family, offering both emotional and financial support.
As a packed prayer vigil last Wednesday evening at Ascension Church, indicates there seems to be no shortage of those willing to help.
Well over 400 people payed $40 a piece to attend a packed fundraiser Monday night at the Carleton Hotel to benefit the ongoing search efforts.
"It was a huge success," said Garrigan's cousin, Annie Mammoser, who organized the event. Mammoser said the family is particularly touched by the generosity of both the Carleton and Molly Malone's in Forest Park, where Garrigan's sister Marie was head chef.
"They won't stop giving," she said.
Monday's receipts were added to an estimated $15,000 to $20,000 raised at a Sunday night fundraiser at Kevil's Restaurant in Forest Park. Other fundraisers are planned. Those wishing to donate money directly can contact Sean Olis at Community Bank, 708/660-1000.
All money collected will be deposited in the Kathleen Garrigan Volunteers Fund at Community Bank. That money will be disbursed by Garrigan's father, Tom, who arrived in Fairbanks last Thursday with another daughter, Rosie, and one of Kathleen's cousins, Bill O'Shea. All are currently on site at Harding Lake, taking part in the ongoing search operations for Kathleen and Travis Alexander, 19. They intend to stay until Kathleen is found.
Garrigan and two other AmeriCorp volunteers went missing over the Memorial Day weekend after they went camping by Harding Lake, 45 miles south of Fairbanks. The three were last seen canoeing on the icy windswept lake mid-afternoon on Sunday. The Alaska State Police were notified Tuesday morning after the three didn't return to their home base in Nenana, Alaska, on Monday as expected. Tuesday afternoon the body of 20-year-old Lisa Lomando was found near the shoreline in 6 feet of water, roughly 200 yards from were the trio's canoe had washed ashore.
Searchers have found no signs of either Garrigan or Alexander.
The search efforts are both exhaustive and expensive, requiring food, fuel and equipment to keep dozens of volunteers in boats searching. There's also a shuttle van making numerous daily 90-mile roundtrips between Harding Lake and Nenana.
The operation's expense was underscored yesterday when Alaska State Police officials announced that they are seeking to obtain the use of a towed arrayed sonar system and trained operator to help locate Garrigan.
"Volunteers continue to search the Harding Lake area, but both dragging and diving efforts have been unsuccessful as the search continued [Monday]," spokeswoman Meghan Peters said Monday afternoon.
For the past week, state police, military personnel and civilian volunteers have scoured the depths and shorelines of the lake, which is 200 feet deep in spots. Divers and pilots from nearby Eielson Air Force Base have been involved, while search and rescue crews from neighboring Salcha, Alaska, have also joined in. More than 50 volunteers from the Tribal Civilian Community Corps (TCCC), which Garrigan joined in January, are involved in the search.
While they appreciate the efforts of so many in Alaska, Garrigan's family fears a premature cessation of that effort. Elizabeth McNeilly, Garrigan's sister, stressed that public awareness and support is crucial to keeping any search operation going.
"If they see our faces, they won't give up," said Rosie Garrigan from Alaska.
Mammoser said people back here won't give up either.
"We'll continue to do this as long as we have to," she said of the fundraising efforts.
Marian Brandstrader Garrigan, Kathleen's mother, spoke Saturday of a young woman who could always make her laugh, who never took herself or others too seriously, and who was beginning to find her path in life. Tall, strong and confident, Kathleen played varsity basketball, volleyball and softball in high school. Over a four-year varsity volleyball career at St. Joseph's College in Rennsalear, Ind., she performing well enough to ink her name on the school's top 10 lists for career kills and block assists.
Like many people her age, Kathleen was looking for a life path. But she didn't want to just settle. She'd originally pursued an education major, but it just didn't fit her.
Marian Garrigan managed something of a laugh as she recalled her daughter showing her a report card with A's in all but one course, in an education course. She got an F.
"Well, I guess education isn't your major," she told her daughter.
Kathleen, she said, had always followed her heart, and her heart wasn't behind a desk, or following someone else's model.
"She was so brave," said her mother. "When you're young, you think you can do anything."
Working with others
For Marian Garrigan, there is nothing to do now but remember. And wait. It is a task made more endurable by her faith.
"I learned a long time ago that I'm not in control of this life," she said Saturday. Talking through pain she never imagined possible, Garrigan made it clear she wants as many people as possible to know what her daughter stood for and to be aware of the inclusive world view Kathleen found so compelling.
"I want people who didn't know her to know her," she said. "And I want kids to keep joining programs like [AmeriCorps]."
AmeriCorps touched something deep in Kathleen. Signed into being in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, the program embodied Mahatma Gandhi's dictum, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." It has since attracted hundreds of thousands of young people like Garrigan who wanted to effect change in American society.
In her application essay to join AmeriCorps, Garrigan wrote that she was attracted to the program's goal of "strengthening America's communities."
"My religious beliefs remind me that it is my duty to serve others," she wrote. "In order for all people to approach the unlimited possibilities of human life and dignity, we must work with each other, and I believe AmeriCorps provides that opportunity."
Though her 10-month enlistment with AmeriCorps meant much hard work, it proved a perfect fit for Garrigan's mix of joyous physicality and sense of spiritual imperative. In February, the Tribal Conference group was the subject of a story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner just before they headed to Florida to help residents there hit by a tornado. They spent the next six weeks driving to communities hit by the storm, enduring long days picking up debris and helping people start rebuilding their homes.
"It's a good chance for you to see how you want to spend the rest of your life while serving your country," Garrigan told an Oregon newspaper later in April as she worked to clear invasive plants from a forest.
Indeed, the week before last, Kathleen told her parents that she had decided that what she wanted to do with the rest of her life was administer nonprofit agencies.
In her AmeriCorps application, Garrigan also alluded to her athletic career, saying it had given her an array of experiences with difference people and situations. She was, she said, a team player who would bring her strengths to the AmeriCorps organization's goals.
"[I] am willing to do whatever it takes for my team to succeed."
She would need that sense of teamwork. One of the first non-natives to work in the Tribal Conference, Kathleen struggled initially to gain acceptance among the Alaskan natives. But as she has with so many others in her life, Kathleen brought them over to her side.
"In the end she won them over," said Marian Garrigan. "She could win anybody over."
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