All posts by Amanda Dockter

DNHS Music Department Turns Up The Heat This Memorial Day Weekend

Slideshow: Screenshots from the last Chili Pepper Fundraiser video | Courtesy Dan Sedgwick

Two years ago for Christmas the Del Norte High School music department attempted an unconventional fundraiser. Students from band and choir teamed up to play and sing “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”… with a twist. Part way through the concert, participants were challenged to eat a chili pepper before continuing their musical fare. The event was a hit with students and donors alike, ultimately raising around $10,000.

This year, the school’s music department hopes to match that figure as they revive the chili challenge for a spicy take on “America The Beautiful” as part of a Memorial Day fundraising blitz.

Continue reading DNHS Music Department Turns Up The Heat This Memorial Day Weekend

Del Norte’s Drug Problem

I recently accepted an invitation from Jermaine Brubaker to join Rx Safe Del Norte Coalition’s quarterly call. During the call, Michelle Greene from the Del Norte County Coroner’s Office presented opioid overdose data that challenged many of my own misconceptions. 

Del Norte’s Drug Problem –  2024 By the Numbers:

  • 198: calls to emergency services for suspected overdose 
  • 65: times Naloxone was administered to reverse a suspected overdose
  • 24: drug-related deaths in Del Norte County
Continue reading Del Norte’s Drug Problem

Threat Assessment: Trump Administration V. Redwoods

Assistant superintendent for the Redwood State and National Parks: Shelana DeSilva

Lavina Brooks, a Yurok tribal member, elder, and descendant of the Karuk and Tolowa people posed a pointed question to the panel of Redwood Park conservationists hosted by the local Democratic committee at the Del Norte County Fairgrounds over the weekend.

Digital Event Flyer

“I want to know: From your perspective — or if you’re allowed to give your perspective — how big a threat is the current administration to the parks in Del Norte and Humboldt County.”

Brooks’ question articulated a sentiment present in many minds. The redwood forests of this region are home to some of the oldest and tallest trees on the planet. Human beings have a long and passionately protective history with this particular classification of tree, including as a UNESCO World Heritage site — the designation for places on Earth that are recognized as having outstanding universal value to humanity, and have been inscribed to be protected for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.

On March 1, the Trump administration issued an executive order titled “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production” that set a lot of tree-huggers on edge.

Shelana DeSilva, assistant superintendent for the Redwood State and National Parks, stood up from the table and came forward with the mic.

Continue reading Threat Assessment: Trump Administration V. Redwoods

Assemblyman Chris Rogers Visits Del Norte

Digital Event Flyer for the “Community Office Hours” event.

Chris Rogers was elected to represent California’s 2nd Assembly district last year. This Northern California district is sparsely populated in comparison to other Californian regions, meaning there is only one representative tasked with covering Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Trinity, and Sonoma counties. This poses a stark contrast relative to the twenty-seven representatives afforded to Los Angeles County.

As such, Rogers has quite a bit of ground to cover during his week “off” to consult with his constituents. Not just geographically, but ideologically. These five counties embody wildly different cultural values and economic realities – not only from the rest of California, but from each other.

In addition to attending the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce Economic Summit, Rogers hosted “community office hours” at Paragon Coffee House on Wednesday. The event drew 20 to 30 of his constituents, young and old, who gathered around the assemblyman’s table in a small corner of the cafe.

Continue reading Assemblyman Chris Rogers Visits Del Norte

HANDS OFF OUR COOKIES!

Keven Bingham operates the “Glen’s on 3rd” food trailer that serves as a pop-up mobile storefront from which he sells baked goods to the masses. This small business is the most recent incarnation of a long-standing community institution known to locals as “Glen’s Bakery”. 

“I have folks from all faiths and political affiliations who come,” Bingham told Redwood Voice.

”Cookies are not political.”

Continue reading HANDS OFF OUR COOKIES!

Rainbow Regent Issues “Royal Decree” Rebuffing Executive Order 14168

Rainbow Regent Amanda Dockter posing in full regalia at the 2024 DNATL Pride celebration.

The executive DNATL Pride planning committee appointed me to be parade Grand Marshall for our first ever Del Norte and Tribal Lands Pride celebration last year. This title was bestowed upon me through a super serious selection process. (I lost a game of “not it”…) It seemed to me as though the nature of the role called for a more fabulous title, and Heather Polen suggested “Rainbow Regent”, so we ran with it.

In light of recent actions taken and narratives pushed by the current federal administration I felt a responsibility to address the attempted erasure of gender diversity. If the sitting president can declare himself King, why can’t I use my Rainbow Regent title to issue a decree of my own?

Continue reading Rainbow Regent Issues “Royal Decree” Rebuffing Executive Order 14168

Del Norte County Office of Education Hosts Inaugural ‘Building Bridges’ Family Summit 

Event signage in front of school entrance.

Climbing the stairs that lead to the main entrance of Crescent Elk Middle School feels an awful lot like stepping through a time machine. 

It’s not just the building’s 1930’s Art Deco aesthetic that immerses me in nostalgia every time I walk through its doors. I graduated from the school in 1999, sure, but I’ve wandered through those halls for a myriad of reasons over the decades. Most recently, I found myself returning to my adolescent alma mater for an entirely new reason. As the parent of a student, I was invited by the Del Norte County Office of Education and the Del Norte Unified School District to their inaugural “Family Summit” event. This conference, called “Building Bridges”, was an effort undertaken by DNCOE and DNUSD to strengthen student and family connections between home, school, and resources available within the broader community. 

Continue reading Del Norte County Office of Education Hosts Inaugural ‘Building Bridges’ Family Summit 

Activists Organize Local Action For “People’s March”

(Disclosure: this article was written as an editorial piece due to the author’s own personal biases in favor of civil rights, affordable healthcare, empathy, and free appropriate public education.)


While mindlessly scrolling social media sourcing stories for the Redwood Voice Community Newscast, a digital flyer for a Crescent City “People’s March” kept popping up in my feed. Apparently, the data-mining chaos goblins of the Metasphere insisted quite strongly that this post specifically would be of interest to me.  I found myself annoyed, first and foremost, at the way the almighty Facebook algorithm prioritizes delivery of content. My annoyance, however, was quickly replaced with a sense of amusement that the event infographic attempted to recruit and rally potential participants with the bold declaration of “UNITED WE STAND!”

“…do we, really?”  I chuckled to myself.  “ …and for what?”

If you buy into national narratives parroted by political pundits through conglomerated media, you’d believe that we are living in extraordinarily divided times.  

The way I personally see it, we’ve all been through so many “unprecedented” circumstances in recent times, that at this point, it seems as though dissociative apathy has just sort of blanketed our political climate like a creeping fog on our collective consciousness.  Either way, aiming for unity in this era of American sociocultural history seems like a bit of a moonshot.

Continue reading Activists Organize Local Action For “People’s March”

Crescent City, CA People’s March 2025

Recorded 1-15-25 for KFUG Community Radio’s “Community Service” segment: a conversation with Lupe Gutiérrez and Kevin Hendrick, organizers for 2025’s “People’s March.”

The Crescent City, CA event will take place Saturday January 18th 2025. Participants will meet at the Cultural Center on Front Street. Doors open at 10:30 AM, with speakers taking the stage at 11 AM. At 11:30 AM participants are invited to march (on the sidewalks) northbound on Highway 101 before crossing at Cooper street and returning south on Highway 101.