One last event tonight, the Volunteer Pot Luck Dinner, was a chance for the volunteers to get together one last time and for the Iditarod staff to share their appreciation for all of the volunteers’ hard work.

A couple hundred of the nearly 1,500 volunteers for this year’s race gathered for one more time at the Millennium Hotel.  It was  a neat chance to reconnect and say goodbye to each other one last time for this race season.  After being on the trail and watching the volunteers in action, I am more convinced than ever that race could never happen with out them.  The volunteers come from all over the world and it seems like the majority of them have volunteered for many, many years.  They give their time, energy, and efforts to help make sure the dogs and mushers make it to Nome.  The next time the volunteers will gather as a group will be at the 2015 Musher Sign-Up Picnic in June.

The highlight of the evening was getting to see Jeff Schultz’s slide show of nearly 300 photos from this year’s race.  He also narrated and told some of the stories behind the photos, and as you know, I love stories!  If you haven’t seen Jeff’s photos from this year’s race, be sure to check them out here.

And so ends the Alaska portion of my Teacher on the Trail experience. I’m leaving in a few hours to begin my journey home.  It’s been an amazing experience which I haven’t fully digested yet.  Everyone told me that this experience would change my life.  I’m not sure how I’ve changed quite yet, but I’m not sure you can go through an experience like this and remain exactly the same person you were when you started. I will continue to blog until I pass the torch on to the 2015 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail in June, so keep watching.

Thanks for sharing this amazing journey with me!

Jen