Allow your students to feel connected to the race like never before! In this program, teachers will be given the addresses of the mushers who agree to participate in this program each year. Have your students write to a musher with the chance to receive something back! See all the information below:
- Please read this information and suggestions before writing to mushers.
- We only send contact information to educators who are needing the contact information for educational purposes. We do not release email information for mushers. We do not release any contact information directly to students.
- We are grateful to those mushers who do respond to student mail. However, please remember that mushers are busy and some letters of response may not arrive until May, June, or even over the summer months.
- Not all mushers will respond. We do not guarantee response or a time frame for those who do respond.
- Following our guidelines may lead to greater success with your educational project. Thanks for your patience!
* Please Note: Each year’s musher contact list is updated by mid-December because mushers can sign up for the race until the end of the November; we don’t know who all of our mushers will be until that time. We will send out the ‘new’ contact list in mid December. It is not updated for musher withdrawals or additions, so please check the current musher roster when you begin your letter writing project. Please use an updated list EACH YEAR to make sure you are writing to the correct list of mushers and that you are writing to mushers who agree to get letters from students.
- Complete the yearly Google Form to register – see the annual website post for this
- Once the education department has received your request, you will receive the musher contact information after the musher registration deadline of December 2.
- Addresses will be sent on or around the following dates: Dec. 15, Jan. 5, Jan. 26, Feb. 9, Feb. 23, Mar. 2, Mar. 23 & Apr. 6
- Students should choose the mushers they’d like to write to and create well written letters that ask good questions and wish mushers success. When students view information on a musher’s website first, they are able to come up with questions that aren’t already answered on the website, making responses from mushers who do write back much more interesting for your students.
- Place the letter(s) to each musher in a separate envelope. Along with your letter(s), be sure to include a self-addressed-stamped-envelope (SASE) if you would like to receive a reply.
- Once your letter(s) and the SASE are inside of your envelope, address the correspondence to the musher using the address list that was sent to you.
- Remember to put correct postage on the return envelope. REMEMBER if the musher is from another country, you cannot use United States postage on the return envelopes. Mushers must return mail using foreign postage. Contact your post office for assistance.
THIS IS IMPORTANT:
Send the envelopes directly to the musher. Don’t send the letters to Iditarod Headquarters. Mushers do not get their mail at Headquarters and they will not be forwarded or delivered from there.
If this sounds like something you would like to do, click here to register: bit.ly/MusherLetters2026
Please reach out to jim.deprez@iditarod.com or aekelley825@gmail.com with any questions
