Collaboration among Anchorage Public Library, Sisters in Crime and the Iditarod Race Committee has led to an amazing first for the Iditarod. Children at 14 checkpoints along the Iditarod Trail will receive new books from Jane Blaile, this year’s Teacher on the Trail.
The Iditarod checkpoint book distribution is an outgrowth of this year’s Big Read project, a one-book community read directed by Anchorage Public Library all over the state. The book APL selected is “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, which focuses on justice, compassion and integrity.
“The original Iditarod was an incredible feat of courage and compassion by a series of mushers,” said Karen Keller, APL Director. “It ties right into our themes. When we talked about partners for this Big Read we really wanted to find a way to incorporate the Last Great Race.”
After a lot of discussion and some serendipitous organization, the Big Read on the Iditarod Trail project came together. Sisters in Crime, excited to be a part of a youth book distribution project contributed $1,500 to purchase books. A list of books for young readers with similar themes to “To Kill a Mockingbird” was created and library staff shopped in book stores all over Anchorage to fill the book bags. The bags were packed in boxes, labeled and picked up by Iditarod volunteers. The Iditarod Air Force dropped the boxes off at Nikolai, McGrath, Takotna, White Mountain, Ruby, Galena, Nulato, Nome, Kaltag, Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Koyuk, Elim and Golovin.
“It’s so exciting to think of a child somewhere along the Iditarod Trail being inspired by one of the great books that were sent out,” Keller said. “It never could have happened without that great can-do attitude Alaskans have. We dreamed it and then it was real.”
The Big Read project led by APL runs through the end of April. Dozens of book club kits are being distributed to librarians and other interested parties throughout the state. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. The Big Read in the Pacific Northwest is supported, in part, by a grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. For more information about The Big Read in Alaska, go to www.anchoragelibrary.org.
