AAFS Fun Skate

I got to be the special guest at the Alaska Association of Figure Skaters' Fun Skate Fundraiser event. It was a super fun time that combined two of my favorite joys, kids and skating! The skater volunteers did a great job sharing their passion for skating and making sure everyone was having a fun time. The event offered free 10 minute, mini-lessons, skills demonstrations (jumps, spins and spirals) and of course, lots of games including limbo, red light green light and squat.

I was able to skate and talk with tons of kids and pass out prizes to the participants and, as always, posed for lots of pictures. I also signed autographs and passed out signed photos for those who wanted them. I especially enjoy events where I am able to promote and support organizations that have impacted my life and helped shape me into the person I am today. AAFS is not exception. My involvement with skating over the last 24 years has played a huge role in shaping me into the woman I am.

Alaska Aces vs. Las Vegas Wranglers

I had another chance to cheer on the Aces last weekend as they faced off against the Victoria Salmon Kings. It was a great game with lots of skating action and impressive puck handling with the Aces pulling out the win.

Between periods Boomer, the Aces mascot tosses out t-shirts to the crowd. After a little through the glass pantomime, Boomer made it clear, through gesture, that I was his target. I was delighted to catch an official Aces t-shirt, a must have for every true Aces fan.

The night was extra fun as Lem and I were joined by his parents, his aunt and uncle and his cousin and his fiancee. Lem's brother got married the night before so checking out the game was just one of the many fun bonding activities we all shared with extra family in town. It was a good game and even better company. Lem and I will be watching the Aces play tomorrow night in Vegas against the Wranglers on their home ice!

Special Olympics State Games

This past weekend marked the culmination of Special Olympics' winter season. State Games were held all over Anchorage with figure skating taking place Saturday at Dimond Ice Chalet. As the Head Coach for Anchorage's skating delegation, State Games is always one of my favorite parts of our season. It's so great to get to celebrate the progress all the skaters have made throughout the season.

The athletes work hard at our weekly practices and demonstrate perseverance and determination to overcome the obstacles presented by their disabilities. For five years I've had the opportunity to coach these amazing and inspiring athletes and I've never worked with a more rewarding group of skaters in all the years I've been involved with skating. My Special Olympics skaters are so grateful to have the opportunity to skate and full of such joy and delight it's contagious.

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

I had the privilege of celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday with the children at the Providence Center for Child Development. The pre-school children gathered to listen to me read a few of my personal Dr. Seuss books.

First, by popular demand, we read Green Eggs and Ham. We followed that up with the Foot Book and rounded out our time together with Horton Hears a Who. I just love the message in Horton: "A person's a person, no matter how small." What a great tool Dr. Seuss has been to help me deliver the message of the importance of our youngest citizens. Engaging with children in positive activities has been my favorite part of this year, what better way to communicate the importance of the early years than investing in them firsthand?

Iditarod- the Last Great Race on Earth

I had the opportunity to get to be front and center at the staging and starting line for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race ceremonial start in Anchorage. I bundled up in about every piece of clothing I own and spent the whole morning hanging out with the mushers, their handlers, race volunteers and of course, the true athletes, the dogs!


I was able to be a part of the whole mushing process, visiting with the teams as they unloaded and hitched up their dogs to their lines, entered the shoot and made their way to the official starting line. The air rang with the yelping and excited barks of anxious dogs ready to start their 1,000 mile plus journey to Nome.
The Iditarod Trail had its beginnings as a mail and supply route from the coastal towns of Seward and Knik to the interior mining camps at Flat, Ophir, Ruby and beyond to the west coast communities of Unalakleet, Elim, Golovin, White Mountain and Nome. Mail and supplies went in. Gold came out. All via dog sled. Heroes were made, legends were born.

In 1925, part of the Iditarod Trail became a life saving highway for epidemic-stricken Nome. Diphtheria threatened and serum had to be brought in; again by intrepid dog mushers and their faithful hard-driving dogs. The Iditarod is a commemoration of those yesterdays, a not-so-distant past that Alaskans honor and are proud of.

A race over 1150 miles of the roughest, most beautiful terrain Mother Nature has to offer. She throws jagged mountain ranges, frozen river, dense forest, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast at the mushers and their dog teams. Add to that temperatures far below zero, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility, the hazards of overflow, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs and side hills, and you have the Iditarod. From Anchorage, in south central Alaska, to Nome on the western Bering Sea coast, each team of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher cover over 1150miles in 10 to 17 days.

Mushers enter from all walks of life. Fishermen, lawyers, doctors, miners, artists, natives, Canadians, Swiss, French and others; men and women each with their own story, each with their own reasons for going the distance. It’s a race organized and run primarily by volunteers, thousands of volunteers, men and women, students and village residents.

It was so great to spend the day among the faces of the Last Great Race. As a child, I watched some of these same mushers mount their sleds at the Anchorage starting line and here I was walking among legends like Dee Dee Jonroe and Rick Swenson loving on their dogs and cheering them on as they set out for yet another race to Nome. I was able to hang out with Rick Swenson's team (who sported my favorite fashions, hot pink and black, just like me!)even having the chance to visit with Senator Lisa Murkowski who had stopped in to wish them luck. This year's race could bring forth new Iditarod history as Rick Swenson races for his 6th win and Lance Mackey fights for a 5th consecutive win!

Every year the race sees new rookies making their first trip to Nome. I got a chance to develop two new rookie favorites, the "Mushing Mortician," Scott Janssen (a local funeral home owner) and 19 year old, Cain Carter, step-son of the famous, Lance Mackey. I was able to hang out with both of these new teams, help them get harnessed and hooked up to the sleds and ready for the start. I enjoyed loving on my new furry friend, Joe, one of Cain Carter's dogs.

With the potential for history in the making, I'll be following the race this year, as always, but with a little extra interest as I feel a little more personal investment in some of the teams I spent time with. It certainly was a different look at the race start than I've ever experienced before. I'm excited to cheer them on as they make their way to Nome, some for the first time.

Alaska Aces Game

Lem and I took in some hockey and spent the evening cheering on our hometown Alaska Aces as they took on the Las Vegas Wranglers. These two teams are battling it out for the top spot in our league's division and they sure played like it, going into overtime with a tie game, which ended in a shootout! Unfortunately, the Aces lost in the shootout, but we're hoping we get to see them avenge themselves when these two teams meet again in a couple weeks down in Vegas. Lem and I will be in the crowd cheering on the Aces at the Orleans Arena, celebrating his upcoming 30th birthday! The Wranglers stadium is connected to the Orleans Hotel, where the Mrs. United States pageant took place, so we'll be back on familiar territory for a few days.

Fur Rondevous

My family and I took in some Fur Rondy fun last weekend. Beautiful, clear blue skies made for cold days and wind gusts up to 80 mph made things extra challenging, but we bundled up and headed out to enjoy the festivities. Fur Rondy is something I've been enjoying since childhood, and I love being able to share the same winter festival fun with my own children 20 some years later. My two year old, Ella, loves dogs these days, so she was super excited to get to go watch the World Championship Sled Dog Races, despite the cold.

The Fur Rondy Festival is a significant part of the history and tradition of Anchorage. In the mid 1930's, Anchorage was just a small town of about 3,000 people that stretched between Park Strip and Ship Creek. Winters were brutal and stoking fires, shoveling snow and surviving the elements was the basic daily pastime in those days. Vern Johnson, the father of the Fur Rendezvous, was a likeable, outgoing Anchorage citizen with a keen understanding of social conditions. He and his friends decided to establish a 3-day Festival to coincide with the time that the miners and trappers came to town with their winter's yield. It began as a three-day sports tournament on February 15, 16 and 17, 1935 and featured skiing, hockey, basketball, boxing and a children's sled dog race down Fourth Avenue.

Since then, the Fur Rendezvous has earned national and international notoriety, and visitors from throughout the world descend on Anchorage every February.

Despite the passage of time and a multitude of modern diversions, Fur Rendezvous remains a highly anticipated time of year. There are still many Fur Rendezvous events that have withstood the test of time and continue to maintain their unique character.

The World Championship Sled Dog Race debuted in 1946 and has become the cornerstone event of the Festival bringing teams of sled dogs and mushers to Anchorage from across Alaska and all over the world. Four decades later, dog owners are still competing against each other for the cash, notoriety and the illustrious World Champion title for the event. Other traditional Fur Rondy events include the Rondy Carnival, the Grand Parade, running with the reindeer, parade, fireworks, snow sculptures, Yukigassen (snowball fight), the uniquely Alaskan Original Men's Snowshoe Softball and the Grand Prix Auto Race, one of the oldest street races in North America.

Dare to Care Gala

Lem and I were invited to be a part of Dare to Care Alaska's Annual Gala. I served as a greeter during the event and helped to supervise the silent auction while Lem played the role of "spotter" during the live auction. He even got to use a light saber looking light wand, which was a real treat to a man who grew up eating, sleeping and breathing Star Wars. We had the chance to enjoy some delicious food and make some lifelong friends all while supporting and organization that is doing important work for children in our community.

This Gala was a fabulous event with a lively crowd that was so generous and so enthusiastic in their giving and support of this essential program. The items donated for the silent auction were so fun and creative and it was great to see the support of local businesses and the community. The live auction items were incredible, several raising several thousand dollars on their own to support the work of Dare to Care, feeding our hungry children. Dare to Care, Inc. is dedicated to ensuring that no child goes hungry in our schools. Dare to Care facilitates private, corporate, and individual funding to provide breakfast and lunch to children-in-need identified by school personnel.

Dare to Care Dare to Care was developed to provide food to children in need within our schools. Dare to Care is not intended to replace federal free and reduced-fee meal programs, but rather to help those children who for various reasons are failing to receive those benefits and, therefore, are not eating. Some students may qualify for reduced-fee meals but do not have the $0.30 for breakfast or the $0.40 for lunch required under that program. Other children may be abused or neglected. Sadly, some abusers withhold food as a means of control. Alaska is number one in the nation for reported cases of child abuse and neglect.

Teachers, nurses, counselors, principals and cafeteria managers identify students based on their chronic hunger, their lack of a bag lunch, or their inability to charge a meal due to an already existing excessive charge balance. School staff members notify Dare to Care of the need in their school, and Dare provides the school with funds for food accounts to be set up in the names of those students identified. The accounts are monitored and replenished as needed. Some students may need help for a week – others may need help for months or even the whole school year. Although there are other programs which provide meals to children-in-need, these programs are before and after school and do not provide meals during the school day. Another concern is that these other programs are not offered at all schools.

Our schools are maxed out financially and it is not their responsibility to “feed” our children. It’s their job to “educate” them. But how can we expect children to learn when they are fighting hunger knots in their stomachs and the consuming thoughts of where their next meal will come from? Dare to Care wants to help ensure these children have access to food and take away at least one barrier to their education. The federal government has developed the national slogan “No Child Left Behind” in terms of educating our children. Dare to Care’s slogan is “No Child Goes Hungry.” They are currently feeding 2,500 children in multiple school districts. They hope to grow even more this year. Their goal is to ensure that “No Child Goes Hungry” in all of Alaska.

For more information about Dare to Care, or to help support their cause, visit their website at www.daretocare-alaska.com