August 2000 - Page 3

Expansion Begins on Anchorage Native Primary Care Center

The Anchorage Native Primary Care Center, located across from the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC), will soon more than double in size. Southcentral Foundation, which operates the facility, began construction last month on a 60,000 square-foot expansion of the existing 40,000 square feet. The expansion, which is scheduled to be complete in November of 2001, will grow the existing building to 100,000 square feet.

Southcentral Foundation staff worked closely with NBBJ Architects, the firm that designed ANMC, to ensure the new building fits with long-term plans for the Native Medical Center and the Alaska Native Health Campus. The expansion's design is inspired by Native motifs, Alaska's natural setting and traditional healing. The shapes, contours, textures and colors are the result of extensive research on the Alaska environment and discussions of village life and traditional healing practices with Alaska Natives. The new building also features gathering rooms and a health

SCF and mayor

Anchorage Mayor George Wuerch joined the Southcentral Foundation Board at a site blessing ceremony for the Anchorage Native Primary Care Center expansion earlier this summer. Shown here are (left to right): CIRI Executive Vice President Barbara Donatelli, Mayor Wuerch, SCF Director Roy Huhndorf, SCF Board Chair Sophia Chase, SCF Director Robert Singyke, SCF President and CEO Katherine Gottlieb and SCF Director John Evans.

information center in the lobby where clients can find information about services or health topics.

Southcentral Foundation has planned the expansion for several years. When planners designed the existing Primary Care Center in the mid-1990s, they knew patient volume would rapidly outgrow the building. But available funding, at that time, limited the building to its current size. While ANMC was designed to handle up to 100,000 outpatient visits a year, it saw 250,000 visits in its first year. And three years later it is handling 350,000 visits. This large increase is due to population growth and a trend among Alaska Natives to move from rural villages to Anchorage.

In addition to the patient resource center, the expansion will provide additional space for programs currently housed at the Primary Care Center, including family medicine, pediatrics, women's health, mental health, the pharmacy, radiology, laboratory, as well as a new service called physical medicine. Physical medicine will include physical therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors and massage therapists. With the incorporation of Native healing practices and Native ways, these services round out a full spectrum of primary care services centered upon the Native individual, family and community.

Head Start Accepting Children for New School Year

Southcentral Foundation's Head Start program is an Early Childhood Development preschool for Alaska Native and Native American children three to five years of age living in Anchorage. Head Start currently has openings for the coming school year and is accepting applications for both the part-day and full-day preschool programs. For more information, call

(907) 276-4323.

CIRI SPOTLIGHT:

Joann Arroyo, Senior Corporate Accounts Payable Clerk

CIRI shareholder Joann Arroyo was recently promoted to senior corporate accounts payable clerk in the CIRI accounting department, where she has worked for more than a year. Though she has worked in several areas of the accounting field, she prefers accounts payable where she focuses more on payroll backup and oversees the accounts payable clerk. JoAnn Arroyo Spotlight

Prior to working at CIRI, Arroyo worked as a bookkeeper for Tyonek Native Corporation and Eklutna, Inc. She enjoys her job and says, "It is a privilege to work for my own Native corporation because I can actually see how well CIRI is doing. I'm also impressed with the dedicated, professional people who work in the accounting department."

Arroyo, both a CIRI and Tyonek Native Corporation shareholder, was born in Anchorage and raised in the village of Tyonek. She is of Athabascan heritage and is an active member of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In her spare time, Arroyo, who is the proud mother of two children, goes home to Tyonek to spend time with family and friends. She describes Tyonek as a special place where time seems to slow down so you get to notice things like pods of Beluga whales swimming past as they make their

way down the inlet.

CIRI CAMPAIGN
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September and continue airing through the end of the year. Print ads will begin appearing in October to remind the community about the services provided through CIRI's non-profit organizations, as well as provide more information about CIRI's role in Alaska's economy and the importance of the Native cultural heritage.

"Communication is important to CIRI. And we feel we not only need to communicate with our shareholders but to all Alaskans," says Marrs. "In today's world a successful corporation must be strong in business, but

we're also expected to have a large role in supporting the community."

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
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Recently, we have been successful working with Congress to shorten the holding period on our wireless investments. A new law allowing Native corporations to convert these partnership investments into stock and make ownership structure changes to their PCS investments has now passed both houses of Congress and has been signed by the President.

The new legislation gives CIRI the opportunity to exchange its interests in joint ventures earlier than was previously possible. This means, CIRI will not have to wait until 2002 and 2004 to realize the gains on our wireless telephone investments, which provides us more flexibility to respond to changing market conditions, including transactions that are consolidating the industry.

Your Board of Directors has not yet taken up the question of whether a large special dividend will be paid. Remember, CIRI does not have the cash value of these investments today, and that value could go up or down by the time CIRI actually accesses it.

I hope this answers shareholder questions. Please do not hesitate to call or write with additional questions. We also appreciate your patience during

this process.