Aaron Burmeister was traveling to Kaltag.  The wind was blowing in his face on the mighty Yukon River, making the temperature colder than the recorded negative 30 degrees.  Aaron had braced himself in his sled, putting a snowshoe on either side of his sled seat, so he wouldn’t fall off the sled if he fell asleep.  It is very hard to stay awake between 2 and 3 a.m. even on the trail.

In the blinding snow he wasn’t sure what that bent over figure was in the night.  Could it be a bear?  It seemed to be panting, out of breath.

Aaron was brought quickly back to wakefulness when he realized that this figure was a fellow musher separated from his team.  The big panting bear turned out to be John Baker trying to chase down his team.  Aaron pulled the exhausted John onto his sled and set off into the night hoping to locate John’s team further down the trail.  John slept while Aaron ran along side the sled searching the night for John’s dogs.

It was over an hour before he spotted the glowing eyes of dogs in his headlamp.  He woke John.  Trying to keep his dogs from taking off without him, John quietly crept up to the team.  He lunged for his sled and grabbed it-success!

John Baker regained his team and went on to place third in this year’s Iditarod.  Aaron’s sacrifice of his own time and effort enabled John to be one of the prizewinners, a position for which Aaron himself was in contention.  For his selfless assistance to a fellow musher in need, Aaron Burmeister was this year’s recipient of the Fred Meyer Sportsmanship Award for heroism on the trail.

On this level, the Iditarod is about more than winning; it is about character.  It harkens back to the original serum run, the race against time to save lives.  For Aaron Burmeister, it wasn’t much of a decision; when someone is in distress and his dogs are in danger, you stop racing and you start caring.  And thus the Last Great Race continues to give educators everywhere on the globe real stories of compassion, character, and sacrifice to share with our students.