The Anchorage Assembly has renamed one of the city’s parks after its first sister city, following a push from a group of local students.
Students from Sand Lake Elementary School lobbied the Assembly to change the name of Sand Lake Park to Chitose Park in honor of the Japanese city.
On Tuesday night, 11-year-old Stella Falsey spoke to the Assembly and presented a slideshow, noting the 55-year partnership between Anchorage and Chitose. She visited the city this summer, and said it has its own Anchorage Park, complete with trees from Alaska’s largest city.
“It has a golf course, a playground, really cool stuff, and they’re honoring us in this way,” Falsey said. “So I think the least we can do is honor them in our city as well.”
Sand Lake Elementary also houses the school district’s Japanese immersion program, which has been in place since 1989. Addison Myers, 11, participates in the program and says she hopes the naming of the park highlights the benefits of language immersion — especially when the district weighs how to cut its budget.
“The past few years, it has been on the board for getting, like, shut down… the immersion programs, some of them,” Myers said. “And I think it’s just really great that some of us have this opportunity to be able to learn how to speak Japanese and go on these amazing trips.”
Students like 11-year-old Michael Tranberg said they were welcomed with open arms when they visited Chitose.
“Chitose, and pretty much like all of Japan, is an amazing place with amazing people, and they’re the most friendliest people that you can possibly imagine,” Tranberg said.
The Assembly unanimously approved renaming the park. A group of dignitaries from Chitose will visit Anchorage at the end of August to visit Chitose Park when it’s officially unveiled.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
