- Samantha Corcoran

A Big Sister For AGLP

       “Alaska is really beautiful. I actually am allergic to the sun, so it’s good it’s not too sunny. It’s just a really nice place to live.”

       Jeanette Carrick, a 15-year-old Alaskan, has lived in the 49th state for her whole life. She was born a block from her house at the local hospital. She is a normal teen who goes to school, hangs out with her friends and listens to music.
       Jeanette’s life does have one big difference from many travelers on the Alaska Great Lakes Project. Her dad, Tim Carrick, is the pastor at the United Protestant Presbyterian Church in Palmer, Alaska. The church is, and has been for years, a home base for many different types of Christians. “ I like my dad being a pastor mainly because people at the church look to me as being important. Everybody knows me. It’s just cool. It can also be a bad thing being the pastor’s kid, mainly at school because people think I have to be a goody-goody,” Jeannette said.
       Jeanette also has another unique quality. She gets to travel the world and the rest of the United States with her mom, dad and brother Daniel visiting relatives. She has traveled to the United Kingdom, Guatemala, the Bahamas, Japan and 18 of the United States. Carrick says, “If I could move anywhere in the world I would move to Nojiri, Japan. I really liked the scenery there when I visited my two uncles and my grandparents when they used to live there.” The Carrick family was considering moving to England because they found it really cool. It was a community kind of like Palmer with mountains and it had a really nice church. They decided not to move because they were too close to their community in Palmer.
       How would you feel if your best friend moved across the country? Well, Jeanette Carrick’s best friend experienced that. “She moved to Texas last summer when the Alaska Great Lakes Project was here in June. It was harder for her than it was for me,” Jeanette said. “We keep in touch. She’s already visited twice since she left. She loves snow, so it was hard for her,” Jeanette said. Jeanette has made new friends coming into high school this past year and is glad that she lives in Alaska, not Texas. “Texas is boring and flat,” Jeanette said. “Mountains are my favorite thing about Alaska.”
       Jeanette has grown up with the Alaska Great Lakes Project. She was excited that, this year, she is finally older than the participants and can be a “big sister” for AGLP. When asked her feelings about the Alaska Great Lakes Project visiting her dad’s church for the past 18 years, Jeanette replied, “I find it quite cool. I see lots of people that come to Palmer, and this group seems to be the nicest and most fun. I always look forward to them coming at the end of the school year.”