HUMAN

Name: Thomas Kehrberg

Age: 42

Residence: Unalakleet, Alaska

Occupation: Airport Cargo Handler

Years involved with the Iditarod: 3

Iditarod Roles: Volunteer Laborer

Current Location: Unalakleet, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 14, 2022

Temperature: 6F Outdoors, 68F Indoors

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

I first became involved with the Iditarod three years ago, just helping move pallets around. This year, I built the berm on the ice. That’s to help protect the dogs from wind gusts or give them a little warmer place, and to help the mushers know where to park on the ice and where to stop and line up their dogs, I guess. 

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

I am here today and involved with the Iditarod because I’m part of the community, so it’s good to help out. It’s part of my job, being with the airport. Pretty much, I do what my boss tells me to do. They said set up the berms. I came down and set up the berm with the loader. And it’s just fun for me, because I’m from Wisconsin and I used to watch this stuff on TV all the time, so it’s cool to be involved with a world famous race.

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

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was following Thomas Waerner down the trail on my snowmobile, and my mom on the back. And we got a lot of cool pictures of him coming in first place. That was probably the most memorable, when we followed him from Tripod, I don’t know, 15 miles all the way to town. We just trailed him from the back off the sides. We didn’t bother him at all, we just let him go about his race. But yeah, it was neat. Really neat.

What in life do you know for sure?

What I know for sure in life is that every day you wake up, you need to be grateful for that day because you never know what’s left for you in life. So you need to live every day like it’s the last one.