2019 Iditarod Musher Drawing Banquet at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center

This evening, the 2019 Iditarod Musher’s Drawing Banquet took place at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in downtown Anchorage. Prior to the banquet, Iditarod fans had the opportunity to have a meet-and-greet with this year’s mushers. Many pictures were taken, thousands of autographs were signed, and hundreds of people left happy after having met mushers whom they’ve admired and followed for years. 

Jessie Holmes Signing an Autograph for Me

The banquet hall was filled with an audience of about 1,700 people! Spectators and mushers were lucky to hear Hobo Jim sing some songs and play his guitar at the beginning the the evening. Of course, Hobo Jim fittingly and joyfully played “The Iditarod Song.” He was joined by many in the crowd. 

Hobo Jim singing “The Iditarod Song”

After having a delicious 3-course meal, each of the mushers had the opportunity to draw a bib number and starting position from the mukluk. A mukluk is a soft boot that is traditionally made of caribou or sealskin. One by one, mushers took and stage and drew their number.

After drawing a bib number, each musher approached the podium and shared a message in which they typically thanked their friends, family and sponsors. Some mushers took the opportunity to make some jokes, and such was the case for Jeff King and Cindy Gallea, who both joked about their age. Some mushers discussed the reasons regarding why they choose to race the Iditarod and what motivates them. Charley Bejna talked about the challenges of living with diabetes and hopes to share a message to others with diabetes that you can still live a normal life. 

The first musher who’ll be leaving the starting line is Anja Radano. She’ll be wearing bib #2. Remember, each year Bib #1 is reserved for the Iditarod’s honorary musher. This year, there are actually two honorary mushers being recognized- Ed and Cathy Rasmuson. Mr. and Mrs. Rasmuson are being acknowledged for their tremendous philanthropy and the positive outreach and work associated with their nonprofit organization, The Rasmuson Foundation.

If you want to have your students learn more about honorary mushers, check out this article and these great classroom ideas. Additionally, if you’d like to see the starting order and the bib numbers that were drawn, refer to the 2019 Iditarod Musher List. Make a connection in the classroom to the process of how mushers select their bib numbers from the mukluk. Use the 2019 Iditarod Musher List to create math probability problems. Here’s some to start you off:

• If every musher’s name was put into a mukluk, what is the probability that you’d pick….
  • a female musher
  • a male musher
  • a musher from Alaska
  • a rookie
  • an Iditarod champion
  • a musher who’s from a different country other than the United States