“Kids are worthy and capable of all possibilities and can succeed no matter what trials or trauma they faced,” said Kailey Jo Erickson, who is the wellness and prevention manager at the Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC).

TCC sponsored a wellness week for Galena high school students just before Thanksgiving.

Ms. Erickson was a resident advisor and director of the Native dance group at Ptarmigan Hall last year. She misses working with the kids last year “so much” and said, “All of us help drive this work of making sure youth are healthy and happy.”

Kailey said that their goals of the planning and implementation of wellness week is to “present both school and community wellness programs as a whole instead of an individual.” She hopes to “build relationships with communities because prevention is based on support” She “wants to build relationships to better sustain programs.”

Galena is their first village they have gone to, and after here, they plan on going to Nenana. Their goal is to “go to all 38 villages in TCC services.”

“TCC plans on bringing prevention programs here regularly so students can know resources and skills that can help them in their future,” she said.