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Joan Kaczmarczyk explains the dog sled with part of her "crew" in the background. Below right: Sled runners. Below left: Running alongside students. Linda Lemmon photos.

 

 

 

By Linda Lemmon

Town Crier Editor

WOODSTOCK --- Eagerness

From the Huskies to the students to the teachers, eagerness was the watchword last week when Joan Kaczmarczyk visited Woodstock Elementary School with her sleddog team. 

Reading teacher Nancy Zurawka saw a flyer for Moondance Huskies, Kaczmarczyk's sleddog team, last year. Having always been interested in the Iditarod race, she applied to the Woodstock Education Foundation for a grant to bring Moondance Huskies to the school. 

"The foundation was very enthusiastic," she said. "This is bringing enrichment to the kids."

She prepped the students for the visit with books about Alaska and the Iditarod.

Kaczmarczyk was eager to share her sled dog passion. She began in 1992, saying she had "loved Huskies forever."

"I was always talking about getting Huskies," she said. On a visit to the veterinarian she said she saw a sign posted about four Huskies being available. She took two of the dogs and then took the other two and shortly after that she got one more. "Those were my original five," she said. 

She likened her love of Huskies and sledding to standing too close to a vortex --- you get pulled in.

While the dogs were pulling at the tie up line, Kaczmarczyk explained the sled used for dog sledding, pointing out each part of the sled. She hooked up two of the six dogs she had brought to a rig with wheels --- since there was no snow --- to show the students how the dogs and sledding work.

She introduced the kids to Sugar, Spice, Lily, Sky, Lakota and Velvet. Some of the dogs are from Fairbanks, Alaska.

Each dog seemed eager to go for a run but only two were attached to the rig. Eager to run, the dogs ran up and down the field, along the line of students.