We had a beautiful summer day last week — perfect for cruising on the bike trail down by Taku Lake.

I rounded the corner by Campbell Creek when a friend shouted for me to pull over.

Jess Gutzwiler was on a speed-walking circuit, going the opposite way on the trail. We both were getting some sun but decided it was a great time to stop and talk travel.

Jess and her husband, Aaron Gutzwiler, live in Clam Gulch but recently returned from the Maldives, in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

“We celebrated our 10th anniversary and Aaron wanted to stay in a bungalow over the water,” she said.

“But what made the trip extra special is we paid for the whole trip with miles and points.”

I loved hearing this story just as much as Jess loved telling it. Jess and Aaron saved their Alaska Airlines miles and redeemed them for business-class seats on Qatar Airways from Seattle to Doha, Qatar, continuing to Malé in the Maldives. The award also included the connecting flight on Alaska Airlines between Anchorage and Seattle.

As the couple built their home in Clam Gulch, they charged everything on the Bonvoy rewards credit card from Marriott. Then they cashed in their points to stay at the super-deluxe W Maldives resort on a private island about 25 miles west of the airport.

Jess was full of travel news. She invited me to a presentation she was making at a Rotary Club about a recent trip to Egypt. She and 36 other Rotarians were assisting in an outreach campaign for the Egyptian Liver Research Institute and Hospital.

Apart from being an avid traveler, Jess is the director of community relations for Aurora Integrated Oncology Foundation. So outreach is a big part of her job in Alaska, particularly regarding cancer prevention, treatment and care.

“I found out about this trip through a Rotary group of global travelers,” said Jess.

Jess is active in her Rotary Club in Soldotna and served as president of her club in Anchorage before moving to the Kenai Peninsula.

Part of the appeal for the Egypt trip, aside from visiting the incredible monuments and sailing on the Nile, was the chance to help with an ongoing health crisis regarding hepatitis C.

Rotary International boasts more than 1 million members worldwide. The service organization is well-known for its work in health-related crises, particularly regarding the eradication of polio.

The hepatitis C infections in Egypt are widespread — and can lead to liver cancer. That’s why the screenings are so important. Still, “Rotary could do a big thing,” said Jess.

At the hospital, the Rotary Global Travel group worked hand-in-hand with one of the Rotary clubs in Cairo to ensure that the outreach and screenings could continue after they left.

“We spent six nights in Cairo, which included the day dedicated (to) outreach at the hospital. The hospital was located north of Cairo in the Nile Delta,” said Jess.

While in Cairo, the itinerary included a full slate of visiting pyramids and museums. An Egyptologist accompanied the group to explain the significance of the pyramids and highlights in the museums.

“Aaron was impressed with Ahmed, our Egyptologist. He taught school for 28 years and did a great job explaining the design and construction of the pyramids,” said Jess.

“We had an armed, federal security officer with us at all times,” said Jess. “And when we drove north to the hospital, we had a police escort.”

After leaving Cairo, the group flew to Luxor, where they boarded a riverboat to cruise upstream to Aswan.

“The cruise was fantastic. The food and the service (were) great and everything was so clean,” said Jess.

Cruising along this section of the Nile afforded the group easy access to the Valley of the Kings (and Queens), the Karnak and Luxor Temples. The group also traveled to within 12 miles of the border with Sudan to see the giant Abu Simbel complex built by Ramses II. Because of the construction of the Aswan High Dam, this giant temple was taken apart and reassembled on higher ground.

The hotel and cruise portion of the Gutzwilers’ trip was pre-arranged. All 36 participants were met at the airport and traveled by private coach. But air transportation was not included. Again, the Gutzwilers cashed in a bunch of Alaska Airlines miles to fly business class (lie-flat) on Qatar Airways.

“I’m not sure I can ever go back to flying coach,” Jess said with a sigh.

“This trip was more of a vacation than a project,” confessed Jess. But it’s not the only trip she’s taken to work on a service project.

“I really like to dig into a project,” she said.

Back in 2017, she and a group from Anchorage South Rotary Club traveled to Manzanillo on Mexico’s Pacific coast. From there, they traveled up in the hills to the city of Colima to support an effort called Project Amigo.

Program attendees spend a week supporting Project Amigo’s efforts to educate the children of west-central Mexico. Sometimes that means painting or cleaning up a school or staffing a food bank. On the last trip to Colima, Jess’s group brought 17 extra suitcases of donated clothing to pass out while they were there.

Jess and Aaron have their sights set on other service-oriented trips, including a project to build dams in India. This project is organized in part by another Anchorage Rotarian, Adam Hays.

There are many opportunities for travelers to volunteer for service projects while traveling, including Habitat for Humanity or African Impact, among others.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU) – The Fairbanks community is mourning its second death seen this summer, linked to drowning in the Chena River, according to Fairbanks Police Department. The most recent death, hapened on July 19th, after FPD reported witnesses saw a man, later identified as 42-year-old, Elia Ansaknok, jumping into the river.

“We would like to urge all residents to use caution and safe practices, such as using lifejackets, when recreating on or swimming in the Chena River,” FPD shared on its Facebook page.

Ansaknok’s body was later discovered on Friday, after a week of search efforts. His niece, Lauren Ansaknok, sharing with Alaska’s News Source on Saturday, that her uncle was the nicest and funniest person she had ever met.

“We didn’t expect this loss, it was really sudden,” said Lauren. “The unknown and the uncertainty, if we were ever going to find him and when we were going to find him, that took a toll.”

During the past week, Lauren said her family has received an outpouring of love and support from the Fairbanks community including strangers, she said, donating their time and boats in efforts to find her uncle. Every day, Lauren said, there was a search party of about 30 people looking for Ansaknok.

“They’ve truly just been there for our family and it’s been something I’ve never experienced before,” said Lauren.

Especially during a time when her family is also grieving the loss of her uncle, Andrew, who she said died also from drowning a month ago in the Yukon River.

“So many people had come by just to support and bringing food and donations and as soon as they found out who it was and knowing that we had that loss previously, a month ago they were even more so present,” said Lauren.

Alaska is one of the leading states in the nation, when it comes to fatalities linked to drowning. Those rates particularly higher in males and people living in rural areas, according to a report State of Alaska Epidemiology. “I don’t ever want another family to go through what we’re going through,” said Lauren.

That’s exactly what swim coach and co-founder of the Aquatic Foundation of Alaska, Grant Gamblin, is aiming to make happen.

“Our 10 year goal is to have the drowning rates [lower] in Alaska,” said Gamblin.

AFA is aiming towards improving water safety and education throughout the state, especially focusing on rural parts of the state.

“Learning at a young age is proven to decrease so many so many unfortunate fatalities that have come through,” said Gamblin.

Gamblin said he also encourages that adults learn how to swim as well. A critical key skill, he said, that he can help them survive.

Lauren also wants Alaskans to remember how powerful bodies of water can be and how proper water safety precautions need to be taken.

“We want everyone to accept the power that is the Chena River and any other body of water,” she said. “People need their life preservers. Please don’t jump off a bridge to go swimming on a hot day. I know that’s a local activity on some of the bridges here. It’s just so unsafe.”

Between 2016 and 2021, Alaska had 342 fatal drownings. Thirty-three percent of victims were found to be using drugs or alcohol prior and another 20% had fallen off of a vessel.

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A Fairbanks Republican looking to unseat a Democratic incumbent had the biggest fundraising haul heading into the final month before Alaska’s August primary election, according to reports submitted earlier this week.

Leslie Hajdukovich, who previously served on the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board, far surpassed all other candidates, raising over $125,000 since the beginning of February, with more than $106,000 in the bank heading into the final month before the primary.

Alaska’s primary election will take place Aug. 20. Under the voting system adopted by Alaskans in 2020, the top four vote-getters in every primary race advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. The races for all but two of the 50 legislative seats up for election have four or fewer candidates.

Democratic Fairbanks incumbent Sen. Scott Kawasaki, who has served in the Legislature since 2007 and in the Senate since 2019, will face a tough challenge from Hajdukovich. After redistricting occurred in 2021, Kawasaki now represents a district that voted overwhelmingly for former President Donald Trump in 2020.

Kawasaki raised over $43,000 in the reporting period, and had more than $66,000 in his campaign account as of last week. Kawasaki said Hajdukovich’s lead was to be expected because sitting lawmakers cannot fundraise during the legislative session, which ended in mid-May, giving Hajdukovich a lead of several months to fill her campaign coffers.

“It really wasn’t very shocking,” Kawasaki said.

Hajdukovich did not respond to an interview request from the Daily News.

Aside from Hajdukovich, Democrats and left-leaning candidates appeared to have the upper hand in fundraising, particularly in races where they were challenging sitting lawmakers who — like Kawasaki — had only recently turned to fundraising. More than 110 legislative candidates are set to appear on the August ballot, and they collectively raised more than $1.6 million in the reporting period that began in February and ended last week.

Walter Featherly, an independent candidate challenging Republican incumbent Rep. Julie Coulombe to represent an Anchorage district, raised more than $90,000, and had more than $50,000 in the bank at the end of last week. Coulombe raised less than $18,000 and had just over $31,000 remaining in her account.

Denny Wells, a Democrat running to represent a South Anchorage House district currently represented by Republican Rep. Tom McKay, had a fundraising windfall of over $76,000, including a single contribution of $20,000 from Anchorage attorney Robin Brena. With McKay running for state Senate, Wells’ main competition will come from Mia Costello, a Republican former lawmaker who raised just over $10,000.

Many candidates reported receiving four- and five-figure contributions from some campaign donors. That is possible thanks to a court decision from 2021 that invalidated Alaska’s campaign contribution limits, which prior to the decision limited amounts to $500 per candidate per year.

Brena had been a key opponent of those campaign finance limits, arguing previously that without the limits, more of the political spending would go directly to politicians, rather than to independent groups that can impact the results of elections without being affiliated with specific candidates. Brena also gave $10,000 in recent months to independent candidate Nick Moe, who is vying to fill a vacant West Anchorage seat against Democrat Carolyn Hall.

In 2022, lawmakers had worked on a last-minute deal to restore some campaign contribution limits in Alaska. That deal fell through, and when lawmakers reconvened in 2023 and 2024, work on legislation related to election reform, including campaign finance reform, repeatedly stalled. Ultimately, no such legislation passed, allowing unlimited contributions to continue flowing to legislative candidates.

Kawasaki is a proponent of reinstating campaign contribution limits. Kawasaki said the current election cycle has brought “a lot of big-dollar, big-donor checks, and then fewer checks overall.” That means candidates are less likely to turn to donors who may be able to give only $50, he added. Kawasaki, who began his political career in his 20s as a city council member in Fairbanks, said he has always relied on smaller contributions to run his campaigns. Hajdukovich, who is a member of a well-connected family in Fairbanks, could benefit from the higher limits, he said.

“We knew that our opponent was going to have deep pockets,” said Kawasaki.

Recent reports show that even as candidates solicit larger campaign contributions, many still rely heavily on self-financing. At least seven candidates gave their own campaigns $10,000 or more in the recent reporting period. Kawasaki is one of them. He said the funding can function as “a safety” for candidates who face well-funded opponents.

McKay, who raised just under $17,000 in the reporting period — including $5,000 from himself — is running against Democratic incumbent Sen. Matt Claman, who raised nearly $50,000 and had nearly $115,000 in his campaign account heading into the final month before the primary — more than any other candidate. Another Republican candidate for the seat, Liz Vazquez, raised more than $5,500, almost exclusively from herself.

In another Anchorage district, Republican Rep. Craig Johnson is facing a challenge from more moderate Republican former lawmaker Chuck Kopp. Kopp raised more than $21,000 compared with Johnson’s haul of less than $14,000, including $10,000 from Johnson himself.

Anchorage Republican Rep. Stanley Wright is facing a challenge from Democrat Ted Eischeid, who came close to beating Wright in 2022. Eischeid raised close to $50,000, nearly 10 times the amount raised by Wright, who brought in just over $5,000.

In Homer, Republican Rep. Sarah Vance, who raised over $16,000, will face a well-funded challenge from Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly President Brent Johnson, who brought in over $20,000. But Vance still has nearly double the funding remaining in her campaign account heading into the primary, with just over $24,000 compared to Johnson’s $12,500.

Kotzebue Rep. Thomas Baker, who switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent earlier this year after Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed him to fill a vacancy in the Legislature, is facing a tough reelection race. He reported raising just over $1,000. Most of that came from three Republicans serving with Baker in the House — Kevin McCabe of Big Lake, Mike Cronk of Tok and Dan Saddler of Eagle River. Meanwhile, Robyn Burke, an Utqiagvik Democrat challenging Baker for the seat, reported raising just over $25,000.

In several open races, fundraising reports begin to shed light on the candidates with momentum heading into the primary election.

Fairbanks Republican Sen. Click Bishop’s decision not to run for reelection created an open race in a district covering a vast area in the Interior, including parts of Fairbanks. Republican Rep. Cronk of Tok announced earlier this year he planned to run for that seat, and raised nearly $15,000. That is half the amount that current Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly Member Savannah Fletcher raised. An independent left-of-center candidate, Fletcher raised close to $30,000. Another Republican in the race, James Squyres, self-funded his campaign with $10,000. Fletcher has a significant funding advantage heading into the primary, with nearly $26,000 compared to Squyres’ $9,000 and Cronk’s sum of less than $6,000.

In an open Southeast House seat created by the planned departure of Ketchikan independent Rep. Dan Ortiz, the leading fundraiser is Republican Jeremy Bynum, who raked in nearly $49,000. He was trailed by two independent left-of-center candidates: Grant Echohawk, who raised nearly $9,000, and Agnes Moran, who raised $16,000, including $5,000 from Moran herself.

In an open South Anchorage House seat created by the retirement of Republican Rep. Laddie Shaw, independent candidate Ky Holland just outraised Republican Lee Ellis. Holland brought in $26,000 to Ellis’ $25,000. Another Republican candidate in the race, Lucy Bauer, self-funded her campaign with $25,000. Republican Brandy Pennington raised $14,000, with $12,500 coming from Pennington.

In the six-way race to fill the open House seat created by Cronk’s decision to run for Senate, the top fundraiser is Pamela Goode, a Republican from Delta Junction who gave her own campaign more than $12,000. Democrat Brandon Kowalski of Fairbanks is second, having raised around $9,600. Republican Rebecca Schwanke of Glennallen raised $9,500. Republican Cole Snodgrass of Fairbanks raised close to $6,300. Another Republican, Dana Mock of Fort Greely, raised just $940. Current State Board of Education Chair James Fields, who is running as a Libertarian, reported no campaign contributions.

Some candidates have already said they will drop out if they underperform in the primary election. Others say that campaigning will ramp up in earnest only after the primary race is over.

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