As sled dog teams mush the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail to Nome, kids are following along through the IditaRead Challenge, which counts each minute spent with a book as a mile run on the trail.
Girdwood 6th grader Solstice Martyn has been reading along the trail for a few years now and loves to read anything adventurous.
“I have some really interesting books that I'm into at home,” Martyn said. “Right now, I'm reading some books from the Charlie Thorne series, and I'm on the second book.”
The names of the nearly two dozen Iditarod checkpoints line a wall near the school library, and each student has a dog sled with their picture on it. As the students read, their trail mileage racks up and their sled moves along the trail, checkpoint to checkpoint.
Just like the Iditarod teams, their goal is to make it to Nome.
The Girdwood school has been participating in the IditaRead for almost two decades. Students started the challenge March 1 and will continue through the end of the month, when they’re celebrated with a party.
Martyn was in the lead only a couple days into the month. Her sled was in Cripple, about halfway into the race after she’d read for more than 425 minutes.
But it had not been hard for the 11-year-old.
“It gives me an excuse to stay up all night and read,” she said.
The race trail is 1,000 miles, but Girdwood is along the 2,300-mile Iditarod National Historic Trail that stretches from Seward to Nome. It was used extensively during the Gold Rush era. Now, the route is primarily used for recreation and long-distance winter races.
That personal connection to the town gets students hooked, said Girdwood librarian Meghan Nedwick. They get more out of the program than reading, she said.
“Just like when the real mushers are racing, they have certain things they have to meet at each checkpoint ,” Nedwick said. “It's the same way with the IditaRead. I always encourage them to do this because you want to do it and do it right, do it with integrity and make sure you're honest.”
Long-time Iditarod musher DeeDee Jonrowe agrees. Her late mother, Peggy Stout, was an educator for more than 50 years and is the first known to hold an IditaRead Challenge, starting in the 1980s.
Jonrowe said her mother was a bookworm who wanted to motivate young students.
“The kids were excited about dog mushing, so she got the idea that if they could do a competition that would unite the two excitements, that maybe she could get more kids to read more,” Jonrowe said. “That was her whole goal.”
You’re never too old to be a learner, Jonrowe said. It’s a message she hopes students take to heart, inspired by a piece of advice the late sprint champion George Attla gave her during a sled dog race early in her career.
“George goes, ‘You know, there's always something you can learn from anybody. And you're never too old to learn, and you never know enough,” Jonrowe said, recounting a memory from a time she ran the Kukskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race.
Jonrowe said her mom would be thrilled to know about the enthusiasm for the IditaRead program from students like Solstice, the Girdwood leader, and Jackson Smith, who goes to Anchorage’s Bayshore Elementary, where close to 300 students participate.
Once Smith starts reading, he can’t stop, he said. Smith planned to read at least 30 minutes each day to make it to the Nome finish line.
“When I read, and when I read a lot, I just kind of feel in the story,” he said. “And then I just keep reading.”
