DENALI PARK - Some Healy residents are singing with the Winter Gospel Choir this week, and will perform at the Choir’s first outreach performance in Healy at the Winterfest Celebration on Saturday from 5-6 p.m.

The performance takes place at the Tri Valley Community Center and will be followed by the traditional chili feed, dessert fundraiser, homebrew contest and dancing to “Danger Town,” a band from Anchorage.

Seventy gospel singers are rehearsing in Fairbanks every night this week with renowned conductor Bobby Lewis and pianist Eustace Johnson, thanks to the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival/Winter Edition.

A second performance will happen in Fairbanks on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Sacred Heart Cathedral.

It’s been hard to track down who those Healy singers are, but at least two Healy residents will be easily recognizable to the local crowd: LoAnn Smith and Kristin Hinman.

Some of the other singers might want to come to the Denali Borough a day early and participate in Winterfest activities. There’s lots going on, both in Denali National Park and in Healy.

On Friday night, Denali Education Center hosts a special presentation by Wally and Jerryne Cole, the longtime owners of Camp Denali, called “Three Generations of Camp Denali: Connecting People to the National Park.”

This takes place at the McKinley Village Community Center, just off 230 Mile Parks Highway. The presentation begins at 7:30 p.m., following a dessert potluck at 7.

Everyone is invited afterward to an acoustic jam session — open mic — at 229 Parks Restaurant, from 9 until the music ends.

The next day, Denali National Park hosts its annual celebration featuring ice sculpting by our favorite returning Winterfest sculptor Larry Moen of Fairbanks. He also will be working with students at area schools throughout the week.

The Denali Wildfire Management Team will present a workshop on how to make your property defensible against wildfires. Or try Geo-Ventures, a GPS scavenger hunt. Take a self-guided “story trail” stroll featuring the book “What’s a Shrew to You?” by Mary Shields, illustrations by Jon Van Zyle. Check out the Denali land cover quilt display and take your picture with life-size cutouts.

From 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., the new Denali Emergency Rescue Team (DERT Bags) will present winter backcountry safety information and an avalanche rescue beacon interactive course.

There will be snow sculpting (judging at 3 p.m.), cross-country skiing for kids, childrens’ crafts, campfire with s’mores, a birding snowshoe walk, dog sled rides, and a 5K family fun run/walk/bike/ski/skijor/snowshoe on the park road. Meet at the headquarters flagpole at 1:30 p.m.

Back in Healy, Usibelli Coal Mine is offering tours of the mine at 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 3 p.m. Meet at the Tri-Valley Community Center.

Don’t miss the Quilt Show and Silent Auction at the Tri-Valley Community Library on Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The bidding ends Saturday at 2 p.m. Vote for your favorite quilt on Saturday only.

It’s a day of hockey at the Healy Ice Pit with multiple games pitting local Coal Kings — Squirts, Pee Wees, Bantams  and Coal Queens — against Fairbanks hockey teams, beginning at 10 a.m. and running throughout the day. The Coal Queens playing at 5 p.m.

Winterfest continues on Sunday, beginning with a pancake breakfast fundraiser at Tri-Valley School, hosted by the freshman class. Come eat pancakes and sausage from 9 a.m. to noon.

The annual “pucker-up” co-ed hockey tournament begins at 10 a.m. with teams from throughout the region participating.

Usibelli Coal Mine will offer more tours of the mine at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

An afternoon of exciting classes are offered at Tri-valley School from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday.

Everyone is invited to participate in these, all sponsored by the Denali Chamber of Commerce:

• Making homemade pasta with Laura Cole.

• Basic cake decorating and using fondant with Cori Fisk, Nikki Wells and Selena Dixon

• How to change your oil and tires with Mike Gaddis

• Matting for picture frames with Kirsty Knittel

• Basic watercolor and making your own paints with Amy Spear

• Making glass beads with Floyd Brooks.

• Spinning and Fiber Art with LauraLee Deluca.

The big weekend ends with the showing of 2010 Oscar-nominated live action and/or animated shorts, at the TriValley Community Library at 7 p.m.

Denali Life Blog • Another pet dog gets caught in a trap on a popular trail in Healy.

• Mike Speaks returns from a trip to Haiti with Relief International. Other Healy residents raise money to donate to the stricken nation.

• The portable planetarium from the UAF Museum of the North comes to Anderson School on Thursday.

• Don’t miss Winterfest activites during the week, including the annual Winterfest Variety Show at Tri-Valley School at 6:30 p.m.

Kris Capps is a freelance writer. Her column reporting Denali happenings appears weekly in the News-Miner. She can be reached at kcapps@mtaonline.net.