Nome celebrates Midnight Sun with parade, plunge, raft race and a heist

A foggy morning that turned into a sunny, breezy afternoon set the scene for the Midnight Sun festivities last weekend, June 20 and 21. Nomeites dashed for gold, paraded down Front Street, plunged into the Bering Sea and rafted down the Nome River, all to celebrate the longest day of the year.
The fun kicked off Saturday morning at East End Beach with the Gold Dust Dash 5K, with an advertised prize of a gold nugget for the top male and female finishers. Thirty-six runners registered; Justin Albee won first place, with a time of 21:08. Olivia Glasscock of Juneau took the women’s first place with a time of 24:42.

Rock Around the Midnight Sun Parade
Nomeites lined up and paraded down Front Street for the annual Midnight Sun Parade at 11 a.m. This year’s theme was “Rock Around the Midnight Sun.” Participants showed up in force, blasting music and tossing treats to the crowd. Kids swarmed the streets, hunting for candy. Some brought big buckets and others had AC grocery bags ready to be filled up with treats.
Rick Outwater has been coming to see the Midnight Sun Parades for years. He said that in years past, there was a jail set up on Front Street for anyone who wasn’t wearing a Midnight Sun pin. Did he like this year’s parade? “Loved it,” he said.
The first float in the parade was Nome Pride, bedecked in rainbows and handing out pride flags and candy. Following was the Arctic Native Brotherhood float, carrying recently crowned Miss ANB Maggie Miller. Next was the Nome-Beltz Middle High School Class of 2006, wearing rock n’ roll themed class shirts. Their float was covered in blow-up guitars, fitting for the parade theme.
Next came Alaska Commercial Company with a truck covered in balloons, tossing candy to the crowd. Following them was the Reader family in their Q Trucking flatbed, going all out with a disco ball, a massive cardboard sun, records, music notes and cutout cardboard guitars.
Nome-Beltz Middle High School Class of 1996 showed up, with balloons and pom poms in the white and blue Nome-Beltz colors. They were followed by the Class of 2016, carrying a banner and in a pickup truck bedecked in balloons and blue fringe. Leading up the back of the parade were three Pioneers of Alaska, marching with a banner, and an ambulance and fire trucks, blaring sirens.
Mo and Hannah Schnaidt almost missed the parade but made it just in time to catch the floats. “We didn’t speed, but we were very quick about it,” said Mo. This is her fifth parade, and she said each one ranks a ten out of ten.
Sherri Anderson was watching the parade with her granddaughter. She said she’s been living in Nome since 2000 and has seen the parade about 26 times. “It’s a good community event to attend, and it’s good to see people, and the kids especially out and about, having fun,” she said.
Judges Jill Nederhood, Patrick Krier and Annie Sockpick awarded the Class of 2006 first place float, Arctic Native Brotherhood float second place and the Pride group third place. The top three places earned $150, $100 and $50 each, donated by the Nome Chamber of Commerce.

The bank robbery at High Noon
By the time High Noon rolled around, the sun had burned off the fog and the air crackled with anticipation and gunshots – it seemed some villainous bank robbers were in town. Seven bandits, led by Richard Rowe aka Ken Shapiro, marched down Front Street for a confrontation with the legendary Wyatt Earp. A crowd gathered in front of Wells Fargo to watch the confrontation go down.
Rowe told the spectators that he and his gang were here to take over, and there was nothing Earp could do about it. When Earp showed up, his story changed. “I’m just here to make a little withdrawal from the bank,” he blustered.
Earp, accompanied by Doc Holliday, warned them off before slipping down a side alley. The robbers took their chance. “We got time to do a bank robbery,” said Rowe. “Who wants to see a bank robbery?”
Rowe tried to tempt some kids into joining the heist, but the youth of Nome didn’t fall for it. Instead, when the bandits returned from the bank with bags of loot, Earp and Holliday had returned to foil the robbery. The standoff ended in a shootout that left robbers on the ground and their ill-gotten gains – bags of candy – redistributed to the crowd.
Earp, played for the second year in a row by Augie Krutzsch, said that he tried his best to foil the robbers each Midnight Sun Festival.
“I think we did a pretty good job with all those bad guys this year,” he said.

Polar Plunge
Just before 2 p.m., Nomeites began massing on East End Beach for the annual Polar Plunge, hosted by the Rotary Club of Nome. The smell of fresh grilled reindeer dogs was in the air as cars began parking along the road.
The balmy 65°F and a fresh breeze out of the west didn’t stop kids and adults alike from dashing into the waves and surf in their bathing suits. Most ran straight in and straight out, but some brave souls stayed in to splash in the surf or ran back in for a second plunge. Damara and Dalina Sobie were among those who went back. Dalina said she feels revived. “I feel amazing,” she said.
Damara said the trick is to just rush in. “Don’t even think about it, just go in.” she said. She did have a word of warning, however – hold on to your shoes. She lost her purple Crocs in the surf.
On the beach, participants gathered around a blistering hot bonfire to warm up. Molly Naaktgeboren was on her fifth year of participation. “It’s really fun to bring our kids and have them experience it, because usually I don’t let them run all the way in,” she said. “This is their time that they can really run in and explore, and it’s exciting that everyone’s yelling and screaming together.”
Up on the road, participants in the plunge lined up to get a “certificate of bravery” from Christine Schultz. Another line stretched out by the grill, where $15 got you a reindeer dog with all the fixings, a bag of chips and a drink. Denice Gilroy, manning the grill, said that she doesn’t remember when the Polar Plunge tradition started, but she wants to say it’s been at least 36 years.
Ethan Ahkvaluk said out of the seven times he’s done the plunge, this year was the coldest. He attributed that to the wind, which he said made it just that much colder. Still, he was in the Midnight Sun spirit and said the festival’s various events are about bonding together. “It’s a really joyful thing to do, because everyone comes together and watches different activities that they have around town,” he said. “This is how we know it’s the start of summer.”

Nome River Raft Race
Sunday, June 21 marked the solstice as the sun rose at 4:19 a.m. and didn’t set until Monday, 1:47 a.m. On Sunday, another tradition of Midnight Sun festivities marked the end of celebrations: The annual Bering Sea Lions Club Nome River Raft Race. Perfect weather graced the occasion, and four competing teams (on five rafts) took to the Nome River at mile 13 and very slowly made their way to Dexter. Low water levels slowed down the homemade rafts. The rules of the race: the raft must be homemade (one was entirely made of blue water jugs), no motors or pointed bows were allowed, there must be at least four crew members and all crew members must be entirely wet by the finish line. A jeering crowd awaited the rafts at the Nome River bridge, but this year, just one bucket of water was dumped on the first raft to make it to the bridge. At the Banner Creek turn off, an armada of pack rafts and canoes took to the water to join the rafts in their float downriver.
The first raft to reach Dexter at 4:33 p.m. was the Class of ‘06, consisting of co-captains Shea Oliver and Reba Lean, and crew members Krystal Hensley, Kelly Bogart, Nina Hanebuth, Anthony Shield, Ramon Ponce and Andrea Painter. Second place went to SS Tom Moran piloted by Derek McLarty, with crew members Cara and Jeramy Walker, Audrey Buie and Brandi West. They arrived in Dexter at 4:50 p.m. Hot in pursuit were the Johnson ladies plus one: Colleen, Meagan and Kaitlyn Johnson, captained by Lee Balcolm. Their raft name: Just Jugs. A 4:52 p.m. finish earned them third place. Derek McLarty had a second raft registered, the Corona, with crew members Cody and Rachel Cordeiro, Nathan Strawboss, Kevin and Vanessa Clark, Tio Cavota, Kat Scott.

With reporting from the Nome River by Diana Haecker