One day a guy goes into a store to buy something and pulls out his dog bootie wallet to pay.  The girl at the counter immediately thinks he must be a musher and that he has a really great bootie… errr… wallet…. They start chatting… and the rest is history.

Monica (right) chats with Karin Hendrickson at the 2014 Iditarod Sign-Ups

This year my class is lucky enough to have “adopted” rookie Iditarod musher Monica Zappa and this is the story she shared with me about how she met her kennel and life partner Tim Osmar.  She is going to be sharing her stories with us as she prepares, trains, and runs her first Iditarod.  My class will be chronicling her adventures and will report them here for you to share with your students.

Here is an article to introduce your students to Monica.  We will be interviewing her at the end of the month and will get updates from her once a month or so leading up to the race.

Monica did a great interview with Mushing Radio, which you can listen to here: http://dogworksradio.com/2013/08/04/mushing-radio-presents-monica-zappa/

One thing she talks about in the interview is that she doesn’t usually listen to music while she mushes, but that people have told her she will definitely need music on the trail.  Sounds like a great project for kids older than my third graders!  So those of you with older students, challenge your kids to come up with a playlist for Monica.  Have them create a playlist of ten songs that would inspire Monica on the trail.  Challenge them to support their choices with reasons.  If you send them to me at the email to the left I will compile them and forward them to Monica!

Read more about Monica here:  Meet Monica Zappa