HUMAN

Name: Winter Marshall-Allen

Age: 39

Residence: Homer, Alaska

Occupation: Public Educator

Years involved with Iditarod: 3

Iditarod Role: Volunteer

Current Location: Ceremonial Race Start, 4th Ave, Downtown Anchorage, Alaska
Date of Photo: March 5, 2022

Temperature: 32 F Outdoors Dumping Snow

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

I first became involved with the Iditarod with my friend, Amanda Johnson, and her mom, Judy Johnson. Amanda is another public educator who works in the Mat-Su Valley as an ESP, and we work on the NEA Alaska Pace Committee together. Her mom is amazing and she’s been volunteering for the Iditarod for her over 18 years, I believe. And her passion for helping and supporting the mushers is just contagious. And through my relationship and friendship with them, I’ve had the opportunity to come out here and support the mushers and meet them and their dogs, and then just tie the education component to it because my classroom has also followed the teams as they track when we come back from spring break. 

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 believe that visibility matters. I’m a multiethnic individual, and I believe in supporting the Alaskan native cultural history. The Iditarod is a great demonstration of the power of the dog team and keeping that legend alive. The subsistence team’s importance in order to bring materials into the village is something that this race represents. It also represents the power of solitude when you train with your animals. And as an educator, I think that those are components that Alaska cultural history can be highlighted with this race.

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

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was 2020 when I got to bring my husband with me here and he got to volunteer for his first time on the team. Getting to see his reaction of meeting mushers and seeing the dogs was just so cool. It also just tied the importance of community, right, because we got to see people that we have known from when I worked in the village schools. And I taught there before I was relocated to the road system. It’s just awesome. The community that is involved with the mushing teams is all across the world. For that matter, we’ve got international mushers who come in. And it just ties us all together for our passion for dogs and for this cultural practice of unifying the power of animal and the visibility of man.

What do you know for sure?

What I know for sure in life is that community relationships are powerful. Education is liberation. And when we talk to each other, we break down biases.