Support from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, UAA

Leslie,

I want to acknowledge the great service to community your 1,000 Cranes for Alaska Project represents.  Thank you for caring.  I’m certain the community of St. Michael benefited greatly from your artistic presence as well as from your compassion, and it is equally certain the entire State is benefiting from your vision and leadership.

Cheers, Kim

Kim M. Peterson, Ph.D.

Interim Dean

College of Arts and Sciences

University of Alaska Anchorage

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Kim, 

Thank you so much for your kind words of support. This has truly been a transformative experience for me, and I am continually blown away by the evolving community response to my small gesture. I have made lifelong friends in the village of St. Michael, and learned firsthand how effective the arts can be in mobilizing our collective compassion and putting it to use in our community. Thank you for the opportunity, through my work at the university, to earn a living in my discipline, thereby keeping the arts at the center of my own life. 

All the best,

Leslie Kimiko Ward

UAA Department of Theater and Dance