HUMAN

Name: Cassie Ellwood
Age: 32
Residence: Chicago, Illinois
Occupation: I am in anti-money laundering regulatory compliance.
Years involved with Iditarod: 2 
Iditarod Role: I am an ugly dog.
Current Location: Anchorage, Alaska 

Date of Photo: March 7, 2020
Temperature: 20F/Outdoors

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

I got involved with Iditarod in the sixth grade. Our teacher did a whole unit where we had to create model sleds and fill them with models of everything that the mushers are required to do. And we had to write to mushers and we had to write to three but we could write to as many as we wanted. I wrote to 12 and one wrote back, so that was my first thing. Dee Dee Jonrowe sent me a bootie and I still have it.

What is your Why?..Why are you here today and involved in Iditarod?

I’m here today and involved with Iditarod because of Blair Braverman and Quince Mountain. I got involved with them two years ago. And it is a community of such love and graciousness and generosity. And so we come to support them and to prove that if they can be brave, so can we.

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

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was actually at the same corner last year, watching Jeff King come around that corner at full speed and go almost completely over. And there was a moment where you were panicking because his dogs looked impossibly tangled and he had a senior citizen as his IditaRider. And so you’re all worried. He got the sled righted, he got the dogs going. It took maybe 10 seconds to do it, and he was on his way again. And it was just watching a master at work.

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is at the end of the day, love is all that matters.