HUMAN

Name: Joe Schierhorn

Age: 64

Residence: Anchorage, Alaska

Occupation: Banker. CEO of one of the sponsors, Northrim Bank

Years involved with the Iditarod: 4

Iditarod Role: Iditarod Sponsors

Current Location: Lakefront Hotel, Anchorage, Alaska at Sponsor Appreciation Lunch

Date of Photo: May 20, 2022

Temperature: 62F Outdoors

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

I got involved with the Iditarod as a sponsor because a longtime board member and longtime backer of the Iditarod, Danny Seybert, and a former executive director of the Iditarod, Stan Hooley, approached the bank to become a sponsor. We were honored, and we jumped at the opportunity.

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

I’m here today because I feel really strongly about the Iditarod. I think it’s such a great event that brings Alaskans together throughout the state, and I truly admire the mushers and certainly the dogs for what they accomplish. Just have a tremendous amount of admiration for their toughness, their perseverance and the love of each other that they express. You can see that evidently throughout the race.

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

I would say one of my most memorable Iditarod experiences just occurred this year. As I was following the race, and one of the mushers is the wife of a person who works for the bank, that’s Bridgett Watkins, and so I was very much following her race, got to meet her at the beginning of the race, was really cheering her on and then saw that she got in a lot of trouble at the end in that huge snowstorm, and I was just amazed at her ability to survive in those extremely difficult situation. Not only survive, but care for her dogs and care for others who were in a really difficult life-threatening situation.

So I just came away from that just totally amazed by the strength and perseverance that it took to get through that ordeal that she had, and then to hear that she’s back up and running and working with her dogs after. That is just fantastic.

What in life do you know for sure?

What I know in life, for sure, is that it takes a great team to accomplish great things, and that is throughout life. You see that in the Iditarod with the teamwork between the musher and the dogs and all of the volunteers that it takes to put that race on. In our business it takes teamwork each and every day to come together, to meet the needs of our customers and to really work hard to devise the proper products and services, but more importantly, to deliver it to them in a way that suits their needs, that meets their needs on a day-to-day basis. So it takes a great team.