Juneau youth board reviews $3,605 in travel requests from two teen athletes

Two Juneau teenagers who qualified for out-of-town competitions are asking the city to help cover the airfare. The Youth Activity Board meets Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall Conference Room 237 to review both requests, which total $3,605.06.

Sonny Mazon Jr. is requesting $2,885 to attend the US Youth Soccer ODP Inter-Regional Event in Orlando, Florida, January 14 through 18, 2027. ODP is the Olympic Development Program. His application breaks the cost into $1,065 for airfare from Juneau, $945 for lodging and an $875 program fee. Roughly 50 athletes from 13 Western Region states competed for 18 roster spots at a Salt Lake City training event, and Mazon earned one.

"We would hate for financial constraints to prevent him from participating in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Heidi Richards-Mazon wrote in the family's application.

Maia Cole-Undurraga is requesting $720.06 for the Alaska Junior Olympic Championship, covering $485.10 in round-trip airfare to Anchorage, $159.21 for a car rental and $75.75 in registration and relay fees. "Juneau athletes and families are challenge with higher cost in traveling in and out of Juneau, lodging, event registration fees, car rental, gas and food to be able to attend events," Maike Undurraga Perl wrote on her daughter's behalf. The board's own Fiscal Year 2026 annual report, also on Tuesday's agenda, already lists a $720.06 final award to Cole-Undurraga in its contingency-fund table. Neither the agenda nor the annual report explains why the same request appears both as a pending item and as an award already recorded for the closed fiscal year.

City ordinance requires the board to set aside five percent of the youth activity grant money the Assembly allocates. At the $350,000 allocation, that is $17,500, leaving $332,500 for the program grants that fund clubs and camps. The set-aside is limited to unanticipated travel for youth who qualify by competition, and applicants need not belong to an organization that received a youth activity grant. The board decides.

The board reviewed 26 general grant proposals in Fiscal Year 2026 and awarded the full $332,500 available. Separately, the board's Fiscal Year 2026 annual report, authored by chair Tom Rutecki, shows eight contingency applications totaling $32,262.48, of which the board awarded $16,262.48, a 43 percent increase in activity. The report does not say what the 43 percent is measured against. The fund's balance closed the fiscal year at $1,237.52, but the same report shows the same $350,000 share for Fiscal Year 2027, with $17,500 again set aside.