- Laura

Rock And Roll Driver
by Laura Karr

            Teacher. Middle-aged. Completely uncool. These are common descriptions of some drivers of the Alaska Great Lakes Project. Jeff Hammer, a driver on the 2009 AGLP trip is in his twenties, plays guitar in a band and went to the Maryland Institute: College of Arts.
            Jeff graduated with a degree in photography, having taken many art history and art appreciation classes along with his photography classes. “I started out taking every manor of an arts class you could take and were required. Some video classes, a lot of art history, a lot of critical thinking classes, some literature. Other than that, just photography classes concentrated on pretty much every photographic process,” Jeff said. Even though his degree is in photography, he wouldn’t want to do it to make a living. “I wouldn’t consider it [photography] a career, definitely an aspect of what I do. It’s what I went to school for, but I wouldn’t want to open a photographic studio. Maybe do some freelance work; if people like it that’s fine, they can buy it off me. But I think in order for it to grow in any sort of a meaningful way for myself it kind of has to come from me, not from people giving me assignments,” Jeff said. “ I do not like starting from an end point. I think it is more useful for something like that to evolve as you work.”
            Jeff has been on the AGLP trip two times prior to the 2009 trip. “This is my first time on the trip as a driver. Dale contacted me and asked if I’d be interested. I really couldn’t pass the opportunity up. I haven’t been here in awhile and I know that I had so much fun before. It has been a really memorable experience, I just couldn’t say no.” He has never come up to Alaska and had the same role twice; Participant in ’98, junior leader in ’00 and now driver in ’09. “I wouldn’t say I like any of my trips more then the other. When I came back the first time after my eighth grade year, I think that I appreciated it a little more, coming back as a junior leader. I have my idea of what I was getting myself into. I was a little older at that point so I had more respect for it,” Jeff said.
            Most people, participants, leaders, and drivers included, have a favorite place or event while in Alaska. Whether it be the in the town of Seward or Homer, hiking Mt. Healy or Exit Glacier, or possibly even seeing humpback whales twenty feet away from their boat. Jeff is a little bit different. “I like pretty much all the places we go. They are all different. I definitely like hiking the mountains [Mt. Healy and Exit Glacier]. I don’t favor any experience over the other. They are just different,” Jeff said.
            There have been many places Jeff has been able to revisit along with activities he has been able to do again. “On the whale watch, we had seen whales before [on previous trips], but never that many and never that close. That was really interesting. I mean I have seen them in aquariums, but having them under your boats is completely different,” he said. The Alaska Great Lakes Project isn’t just memorable and life changing for the participants, but it is also an unforgettable one for everyone on the trip.