Withdrawal from Iditarod

[Kim_Darst]

Hi Everyone,

I received a letter from Iditarod a few days ago. The letter stated that they are lowering the purse because they are losing sponsors because of the economy, Cabelas being one. They also said they are going to try to put on a good race as always but if anyone wanted out of the race this year we could get a full refund if we withdrew before Dec. 31, 2009.

One of the greatest things I have done in my life was to go out of the starting shoot of Iditarod as the first NJ person to ever be there. The support and the friends that I made can never be replaced. One of the hardest things I have done is to withdraw from Iditarod. It took us 10 years to get enough money to run Iditarod last year and I was very optomistic to get enough money to go back this year (2010). I had people like Joni Pollock who organized all the fundraisers, Karmabridge donated all the T-shirts we sold, Jean Pollock ran the booths with Joni and Diane G. while I was flying. Dr. Zaccheo donated all the shots and took care of the dogs that I had questions about (which saved us thousands of dollars). In all we raised close to 20,000 dollars over 7 months. When we totalled last year up it came to 50,000 dollars by the time everything was done. That does not even put as 1/2 way there.

After I had signed up for this year, Iditarod had changed the rules as I stated in my last blog entry and wanted us to do another 300 mile race. With the weather how it has been if that race is cancelled or we can't make it there we lose our 4,000 dollar entry fee. You can only get your entry fee back until the last of the month. I can not afford to lose that money that all of you have helped me get. So we will hold on to that entry fee and re-enter next year and hopefully the economy and buisness will be better for Iditarod and us.

Last but not least I have given quite a few school presentations and my motto was "Always follow your dreams" but after last year I changed that motto to "Follow your heart and your dreams". I had to abandon my dream last year and follow my heart to save Cotton and I would never change that decision for the world. I hope you all understand and thank you for your support and don't worry, Iditarod has not seen the last of us!!!

[jpamusher]

Best of luck,Kim! Hope to see you in Iditarod next year!