Eagle618
Silver Cacher
The Eagle Watches Over
Posts: 117
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Post by Eagle618 on Mar 10, 2007 21:42:23 GMT -9
Just thought I'd share this article with all of you and some pictures. San Francisco Chronicle Kids' hearts harnessed to Alaska sled dog race Iditarod fever hits elementary school -- star musher is carrying its token
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, March 10, 2007
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Andrew Cross, 8, and other Arundel Elementary students le... A travel bug like the keychain held by Nicole Lyon, 8, ha... Martin Buser, a four-time Iditarod winner who was leading... Arundel students swarm teacher Anne Higginbotham's comput... More...
The San Carlos schoolchildren gathered around their teacher's laptop computer, standing on tiptoe to see the screen displaying the fifth day's standings in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska.
Some of the Arundel Elementary School students clutched stuffed toy dogs, huskies mostly, while Andrew Cross, a third-grader, sported a fluffy wolf hat.
"Where is Martin?" the students asked.
Martin Buser, a four-time Iditarod winner, was in 19th place outside of the Ophir checkpoint when the children checked on Thursday. With him on his sled, in his pack or his pocket, was a small "good luck" keychain that had spent more than two years "geocaching" its way from Arundel Elementary to Alaska, buried at one point for seven months under Canadian snow.
The Iditarod is always a big deal at the San Carlos school. The kindergarten and second-grade students study it every year. Buser is a perennial favorite.
But this year is special -- the culmination of a 29-month lesson in patience, geography and hope.
It started on Oct. 1, 2004, when Arundel students put the small keychain in an Army surplus ammunition box and covered it with leaves, twigs and tree bark in a nearby park, dreaming that it would make it to the start of the Iditarod race in Alaska five months hence.
And then they waited.
That olive drab ammo box was a geocache, a collection of items hidden and then identified on the Internet only by its Global Positioning System location. Geocachers make a hobby of seeking out these treasure chests, taking and leaving items as they go. Some of the items have missions, and instructions are attached. The keychain was one of those, a "travel bug" -- destination Anchorage.
The children hoped the keychain, with the help of strangers, would hop from geocache to geocache to see the start of the race. They never dreamed it would find itself on a sled more than two years later.
Months passed and then years as the students and teachers followed the chain's progress while geocachers logged its location using an Internet address and an identification number attached to the chain. It made nearly two dozen stops before reaching Buser in Alaska.
After landing in a couple of caches in the Bay Area, the keychain hopped a flight up to Calgary, Alberta, then zigzagged through several caches in Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces.
At one point, for seven months, there was only silence as it sat buried under Canadian snow. Teacher Anne Higginbotham thought it was lost. When it popped up again, the keychain inexplicably veered south through Washington and Oregon.
Ultimately, after passing through the hands of kind strangers for 4,758 miles and through 21 separate geocache sites, the keychain was picked up in Alaska in January by a friend of the famous musher. She gave it to Buser.
Every year for the past 11, teacher Katherine Wolfe's second-grade class has studied the Iditarod with Higginbotham's kindergarten class. They learn about the race, the dogs, the mushers and Alaska.
Wolfe's class has always rooted for Buser, a crowd favorite in Alaska as well. Last year, Claire Grundig, now a third-grader, sent Buser a letter, and he sent one back. There are more than 80 mushers at the start of each year's race, so the teachers and students couldn't believe the keychain landed with Buser.
It was, in short, "kind of exciting and funny," Claire said.
"We were sending it to the Iditarod," she said. "It got to him, and we didn't think it would."
Wolfe said she practically cried when she found out Buser had agreed to take it with him as a good-luck charm.
Using the Iditarod race as a teaching tool has always been successful, and this year especially so, the teachers said. The race grabs the children, making math, geography, literature and science come alive through men and women on sleds racing with dogs more than 1,100 miles across sea ice and through mountain passes.
The children calculate distances, compare and contrast teams, read fiction and nonfiction stories about the race and learn the dangers of traveling across Alaskan terrain.
The dogs, however, are the clear favorite of the children, and many of the students carry stuffed dogs around school for the eight to 12 days of the race.
After gathering around the computer Thursday afternoon to check the status of the mushers, the children debated the most dangerous part of the race. Crossing the sea ice, some said. Going through a blizzard at night, others shouted.
"Going in a blizzard on sea ice at night," said third-grader Mrinal Verghese, 8, content that he had the perfect answer.
The race also teaches the students about intangibles such as character and personal strength, Higginbotham said.
"They do get the part about not giving up and trying," she said of her kindergartners. "At first they just want to win."
This year, they also learned about losing gracefully.
The kindergarten class' favorite musher was DeeDee Jonrowe, who scratched on Tuesday.
"DeeDee broke her finger," said Terby Diesh, 5. "Now we're rooting for Martin."
By Friday, Buser was in first place.
Terby, just a toddler when the keychain left San Carlos, likes the idea that Buser is carrying it for the school.
And so does Herb Mesler, who created the keychain's geocache in Arguello Park. Only recently did he learn about the school's travel bug and its successful journey to Alaska.
"I thought it was absolutely super," he said as he stooped down next to a tree in the park and uncovered the Army-green metal box. Since Mesler put it there in June 2004, casual and serious geocachers have found his box, taking something and leaving something as they go. On Thursday, several plastic children's toys mingled with the small notepad Mesler left there when he created the cache.
On the pages, families had written thank-you notes. Others described what they took and what they left.
Flipping back, Mesler found the note from the school: 10/1/04 Travel Bug to Alaska.
He smiled. "There it is," he said.
Then he tucked the notebook back into its plastic bag, closed the box and put it back, carefully covering it with leaves, bark and brush to wait for more treasure-seekers.
Back in Higginbotham's classroom, another little keychain with a computer tag attached waited on her desk.
It's going to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the kindergarten teacher said, smiling.
In April, the new chain will start its long journey to China -- first stop, an Army surplus ammunition box on a San Carlos hillside overlooking the school. TRAVEL BUG'S ROUTE -- San Carlos -- Santa Clara -- San Francisco Int’l Airport -- Calgary, Alberta -- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan -- Battleford, Saskatchewan -- Whitecourt, Alberta -- Grand Prairie, Alberta -- Bend, Ore. -- Seaside, Ore. -- Olympia, Wash. -- Richmond, British Columbia -- Van Zandt, Wash. -- Seattle, Wash. -- Anchorage, Alaska -- A sled near Iditarod, Alaska
E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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Post by Hazelsgroup on Mar 10, 2007 22:21:36 GMT -9
Great Article Eagle!
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Post by oleruns on Mar 10, 2007 23:10:11 GMT -9
Thanks for the story Eagle, it's awesome. Funny how a race we take for granted, touches children's imaginations all over the world. I was stuck in traffic due to the start while caching, and was a little miffed. Now that I look back there is a little irony. I am put out because I am slowed doing a sport I like while the sport the slows me down is speeding a part of the same game to Nome. Thanks again for the story and I will try to relax
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