Image: These two quilt squares were among the first to be created by teachers at Iditrod’s summer conference and sewn together by 2006 Teacher on the Trail™ Terrie Hanke. The squares became the first Iditarod Traveling Quilt. Join us this year — and see where the four Iditarod quilts travel. From state to state, classroom to classroom, students will ‘meet the quilts’ and complete lessons and activities that enhance their curriculum. Be a part of this journey virtually by reading the monthly updates.
Quilt 1
Beginning a school year can make anyone a little nervous. Quilt 1 was feeling nervous, too. Afterall, Quilt was headed from South Dakota to North Dakota to start the school year with Mrs. Gladue’s second grade students. Seeing the boys and girls eager to start a new school year was exciting for Quilt 1. The second grade students studied the story of how the Iditarod was started. They did Iditarod word finds. They also made dogsled mobiles to hang in the classroom. The students watched the movie Balto and did projects connected with the movie. The students also studied Alaska and discovered it was a long ways from North Dakota.
While spending the month in North Dakota, Quilt 1 went on a very special journey with Mrs. Gladue. Quilt traveled to Lake Metigoshi and had a great time visiting with Brad Pozornsky and his dogsled team. Brad, a resident from North Dakota, raced in the 1998 Iditarod. He was he winner of the Red Lantern. Brad finished the race in 51st place after 14 days, 5 hours, 42 minutes, and 4 seconds.
As the end of the month approached, Quilt 1 was packed into a box and mailed to Watertown, South Dakota.
Quilt 2
After leaving South Dakota, Quilt 2 was mailed to Mrs. Helmke in Wisconsin. For Quilt, this was like ‘going home’ because Mrs. Helmke is the person who took the squares of cloth that were designed by teachers at Iditarod’s Summer Camp for Teachers and created the beautiful quilt. Mrs. Hemke wrote to say:
This September Iditarod Quilt # 2 arrived home! This quilt originated in Lancaster, Wisconsin in August of 2006. It has spent the last month at Winskill Elementary School in Lancaster.
The quilt made its rounds of the building in 25 days. First, it was reacquainted with the staff at the first faculty meeting of the year. Then, it was introduced to Tina Stimpson, long time follower of the Iditarod and co-worker of Carol Helmke, quilt maker. Tina and Carol’s reading class will be doing many Iditarod activities this school year. First and foremost, they will be making their own class scrapbook as a writing project, so they shared in this quilt event. Lastly, the quilt attended an IMC Open House hosted by the IMC director.
As the quilt makes its travels around the United States this year, I hope everyone enjoys the quilt as much as we have. Happy Idita-quilting!!!
Carol Helmke, Quilt Maker
Quilt 3
Quilt 3 was mailed from South Dakota to Mrs. Prather’s classroom in California.
It was with more than a little sadness that our students at Gracey Elementary School said goodbye to Quilt #3. Having had the opportunity to live with it, study it and other related topics, we felt very attached to quilt. Some of our students sort of wrapped their body into quilt before the box was closed.
We were able to accomplish the following, thanks to Quilt:
- We studied the Iditarod, history, dogs, sleds, geography, animals on the trail, serum run.
- We learned about other “lead dogs’ like Balto and Togo
- We made a point to highlight Alaska as a state, complete with state symbols.
- We made giant posters for each of the above which are on display in classrooms.
- We made our own quilt with each student creating one square
I am trying to assemble the quilt now that it is finished. It is not as easy as it looked. I probably could use a little help from your feline friend, the one that helped Terrie sew Quilt. Anyway, our quilt will become a mini traveling quilt. We plan to circulate it to other schools in our district.
On a map we are going to track where the quilt had been looking at each state and make comparisons geographically.
Thank you so much for allowing us to participate in the traveling quilt. We have submitted our square for Quilt #4. We chose the motto, “Listen to your Lead Dog.”
Thanks Diane for sharing the “Last Great Race on Earth.”
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The school in California has sent us an image of a quilt square.
View the Virtual Quilt.
Then, create your own quilt square and email the image to us. Watch this quilt grow all year long!
Watch a slide show of images from Quilt 3’s adventure in California.
