SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 2001--Alaska Airlines has donated 60 airline tickets to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, D. C. at a joint event on Wednesday, August 22.

The donation is to celebrate the airline's inauguration of its new service from Seattle and Anchorage to Ronald Reagan Washington National in Washington, D.C., which begins September 4. The donated tickets are good for round-trip travel between Washington D.C. and anywhere Alaska Airlines flies.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, D.C. will be using the tickets during its auctions to enable members to go to the annual Boys & Girls Clubs of America Keystone Conference next April in Anaheim.

"Alaska Airlines is delighted to provide these tickets to the Boys & Girls Clubs for their fundraising efforts in the coming months," said Dave Palmer, assistant vice president of marketing for Alaska Airlines. "We look forward to being an active member of the Washington D.C. community."

More than 200 kids from various Boys & Girls Clubs around the Washington D.C. area participated in the event. They enjoyed fresh Washington apples and got a close-up look at different kinds of Alaskan fish. The youngsters were entertained by the Tsimshian Haayuuk Dancers, an Alaska Native dance team made up mostly of young people.

To add to the festivities, Alaska Airlines hosted a paper airplane-throwing contest. Eight-year-old Tambra Jordan, of Annapolis, Maryland, won five roundtrip tickets for her family to fly to Seattle, as well as hotel accommodations for their stay.

In an effort to link youths from both coasts, the youngsters made postcards to be sent to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Seattle/King County and the Boys & Girls Club of Metlakatla, Alaska, home of some of the dancers.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, D. C. is the second largest affiliate of Boys & Girls Clubs of America with 20 clubs and seven group homes in D.C., Maryland and Virginia serving over 30,000 area youth. Its mission is to help boys and girls of all backgrounds -- with an emphasis on at-risk youth -- build confidence, develop character and acquire the skills needed to become productive, civic-minded, responsible adults.

With the addition of Washington, D.C., Alaska Airlines serves 44 destinations in Alaska, Canada, the Lower 48 and Mexico. Recently, readers of Travel+Leisure magazine voted Alaska Airlines the "World's Best Domestic Airline." For reservations go to www.alaskaair.com, call Alaska's toll-free reservations line at 1-800-ALASKAAIR (1-800-252-7522) or call your travel agent. Alaska was the first airline in the world to allow customers the convenience of checking in from their home or office via the Internet at www.alaskaair.com.

For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines Newsroom on the Internet at http://newsroom.alaskaair.com.

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