Summer Training Run with the Teacher/Campers

Teachers have gathered in Alaska the week prior to the annual Volunteer Picnic and musher signup ever since 2003.  They come together from around the United States and even foreign countries to share ideas of how they use Iditarod as a theme for education.  Iditarod is a great motivator for kids as well as teachers.  Applications are real life experiences that motivate and inspire young learners.  They recognize problems and persevere in solving them.

Vern Halter of Dream a Dream

Twenty camp participants met on Saturday June 20th at the Lakefront Anchorage (formerly the Millennium) to car pool to Dream A Dream Dog Farm in Willow to meet Vern Halter and get to know the sled dog athletes in his kennel.  Halter, who operates a kennel and runs a training center for aspiring Iditarod mushers, is the 1990 Yukon Quest Champion.  He’s an 18 year veteran of Iditarod with nine top ten finishes including three finishes in the top five.  Vern has an incredible way with dogs.  He understands his canine athletes and he knows what they are thinking.  The teachers saw him interact with the puppies on the trio of daily puppy walks and daily training runs for the older dogs.

In addition to those activities, Halter talked to the teachers about gear, equipment, training, camping, racing, strategy and the sport of mushing.  Over the past few years, Halter has celebrated the success of Cindy Abbott and Luan Ramos Marques as they completed Iditarod after training at Dream A Dream.  His trainee for Iditarod 2016 is Gwen Bogart.

To complement their hands-on dog experience while at Dream A Dream, teachers heard from a variety of speakers.  Eye on the Trail journalist, Terrie Hanke, delivered the keynote address, Character and Counting, on the first evening of camp.  Terrie currently serves on the Iditarod Education Committee and was the 2006 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail.  

Jen Reiter, 2014 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail, led multiple sessions on using Iditarod in the classroom as a theme for education.  Jen, a third grade teacher from Baltimore, focused on Iditarod based math lessons and other activities she uses with her students.

Cindy Abbott, the only woman to summit Mt. Everest and complete the Iditarod shared her experiences with the teacher campers.  Prior to either accomplishment, Cindy was diagnosed with a rare disease, Wegener’s Granulomatosis.  Summittng Everest and completing Iditarod are individually tremendously great accomplishments.  Having achieved both while managing this rare disease is a tribute to Abbott’s power to persevere.  Her mantra  is “10 feet at a time”. Abbott says her motivation and mission are powerful tools and she has the Iditarod Red Lantern to prove it.    

Gwen Bogart is a second year rookie training with Halter at Dream a Dream.  She spoke to the teachers about her desire to complete Iditarod, her initial Iditarod in 2015 and her decisions to scratch.  The weather plays a huge role in the Iditarod.  The bitter cold of 2015 changed her game plan.  In the best interest of the dogs and herself, she made the decision to pull out of the race.  Gwen is known for her horsemanship and fly fishing and has pursued both professionally.   She’s relatively new to the great state of Alaska, having moved from Vermont in 2012.  Bogart is no stranger to adventure.  She flew a Cessna 150 from Vermont across North America to Alaska in 2011.     

Heading toward Willow for the start of summer camp, everyone was wondering what they’d see of the devastation caused by the Sockeye Fire.  Dream a Dream is located at mile 64.5 of the Park’s Highway.  The fire burned south from mile 78 to mile 72 along both sides of the Parks to Willow Creek, then jumped to the west side of the highway and continued moving to the west and slightly south.  It wasn’t until a few days later on a field trip to Talkeetna that we actually saw any evidence of the fire.  The sight of homes still standing, visible through the charred trees, was sobering.  Those homes survived thanks to the work of the firefighters.    Seeing piles of rubble that were homes only a few days ago was equally sobering.  

The sight of blackened trees and all the destruction that comes with a wildfire was something this group of teachers will long remember.  But they also saw and were awed by the resilience of the mushers affected by the Sockeye Fire and they’ll know the importance of having an emergency action/evacuation plan.  Some 400 sled dogs were evacuated from the area to safety.  Mushers who lost homes and personal belongings, DeeDee Jonrowe, Mary Helwig, Jan Steves and Joar Leifseth Ulsom, signed up for Iditarod 44.  Mary Helwig said, “Even though I lost my home and nearly all my belongings in the Sockeye wildfire, I am determined to run my first Iditarod in 2016.”