HUMAN

Name: Kelly Mulford

Age: 64

Residence:  Kenyon, MN

Occupation: Retired

Years involved with Iditarod: 19

Iditarod Role: Volunteer

Current Location: Denaina Center, Anchorage, Alaska
Date of Photo: March 3, 2022

Temperature: 68 F Indoors

What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?

I first became involved with the Iditarod in 2003. I volunteered for the start, and became totally immersed when the restart was up in Fairbanks. Got up there and ended up bringing 63 drop dogs back to Eagle River. After that I stopped at the headquarters and ended up in Nome, in communications until all but the Red Lantern and I flew back to Anchorage. And then back to Iowa at that time. Just became involved because it’s part of Alaska, but it’s just the idea of everybody is family. It wasn’t that way in my mind when I first got here, but it sure was about two seconds after I met people, Rick Swenson came up to be at The Fancy Moose and he is like to me the, Michael Jordan. And he says, I think I know you. I said, well, this is my first year, but I know who you are. And we sat and talked for a couple minutes and he was gone, but that just was my opening round. And like I say, I started as a start and then ended up at the finish.

What is your Why? Why are you here TODAY and involved with the Iditarod?

I’m here today to support the Iditarod for all the wonderful things they do for dog health, the state of Alaska, the total involvement of everybody that I can think of with this race. It’s all about good people and good dog management. And I just can’t believe I’m a part of it. So I’m happy to be here today because I want to support a good thing.

Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences.

My favorite memory was, I was in the Nome community center and DeeDee Jonrowe came in and had heard I had a sister-in-law that was diagnosed with breast cancer. And she talked to me for probably 30 minutes about her diagnosis, and her mom came in, gave me a hug, and I thought, wow, this is a family. And they supported myself and my wife at that time to get through it. What a wonderful, wonderful group of people I was able to be involved with and still am.

What do you know for sure?

God is great. And I’m happy to be a part of this wonderful family. My family in Minnesota and Iowa just love it when I come home bubbling with all the good stories about the Alaska life. And it brought me up here to Trapper Creek, now where I have a cabin. So I got to go shovel snow. That’s what I know about life. There’s a lot of snow to shovel.