Community Matters.

• Author: Mackenzie, Kathryn
• Position: FROM THE EDITOR

When a fire destroyed the village of Tuluksak's water purification plant and washeteria in mid-January, it took a community of businesses from all around the state to transport bottles of water and other vital necessities to the village until the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation was able to restore continuous access to drinking water with a reverse osmosis water filtration system.

When the pandemic continued to threaten villages throughout rural Alaska, the community stepped up again with groups from federal, state, and local organizations working together to coordinate efforts to roll the vaccine out to some of the state's most remote locations. Using local knowledge and some serious logistics, this state's community of businesses, healthcare providers, friends, and neighbors helped prevent a fragile healthcare system from being overwhelmed. And yes, this was a new challenge, a new virus, but Alaska has been working with tribal health organizations to distribute vaccinations to its remote communities for years, the community was already in place, and that allowed for more rapid vaccine distribution, points out Robert Onders, state liaison for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in this month's article about rural vaccine distribution, "46 Villages in 10 Days."

This issue of Alaska Business features our annual transportation special section (complete with directory) and while these stories are about transportation and logistics, they're really about community and the power of people working together toward a common goal.

We know that the place we call home is unique in ways we are still discovering and requires a lot of each of us to carve out a life here. And we also know that whatever it requires, it's worth it, not just because of the natural beauty that...