Category: News

October Update

Hello Boys and Girls!
We now have 65 mushers who have signed up to run this year’s race!  Isn’t that exciting?  Have you taken a look at the musher listing on the website?  When you do, you’ll be able to notice that we have mushers not only from the United States, but Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, [...]

Welcome Back

Hello, Boys and Girls!
The months of June, July, and August were a mixture of busy days and lazy days. Summer in Alaska is a beautiful time. All of the daylight hours give everyone plenty of time to be outside. When I wasn’t walking around the neighborhood, I enjoyed chewing on my favorite toys [...]

Dear Zuma from North Carolina 2nd Graders!

Dear Zuma,
We are 2nd graders from Charlotte, North Carolina.  We have been reading Akiak:  A Tale from the Iditarod. This story has taught us a lot about the Iditarod dog race.  In the story, Akiak, the dog, displays his courage by finishing the race with an injured paw.  We enjoyed the story and had [...]

Dear Zuma from Second Graders in Louisiana

Hello Boys and Girls!
Thanks for writing to me!  I hope you are having a great day in your school in Louisiana!  I looked on the map at where you live and see it is a long way from where I live!  I know that your climate is not the same as the climate in Alaska.  [...]

Southampton Elementary School’s Community Challenge!

Hello Boys and Girls!
I am very proud of the schools that participated in the 2009 Community Challenge Project!
Here is a summary of Southhampton’s project.
If you did a project at your school, don’t forget to tell us about it!
Lots of Tail Wags,
Zuma
Dear Zuma,
I am writing to let you know how much the students of Southampton [...]

Community Challenge-update

Hi Boys and Girls,
Do you remember by first community Challenge post?  It was about Mrs. Andrews class in Pelham NH.  This 3rd grade class was making money for the Animal Rescue Network of New England (ARNNE)  by baking and selling yummy dog biscuits.  Well they had another sale the end of March.  This [...]

Nigel Stories from Nebraska

Hello Boys and Girls!
I know you will enjoy these stories and poems from our readers in Nebraska.  They wrote about Nigel and the adventures Nigel had while being ‘lost’ from his musher and team mates.
***

Nigel’s Story
By April
Nigel tried to remember how he got lost.  It was windy and snowing and really hard to [...]

Nigel Stories

Hi Boys and Girls
It has been really exciting reading the emails and the blog comments.  It looks like there are a few classes out there where the students are writing stories as if they were Nigel- the dog that was lost on the trail.  They have been sending the stories to us and [...]

Community Challenge- Mrs. Davidson’s Class

Hi Boys and Girls,  
I had a great adventure on Friday.  I was invited to Mrs. Davidson’s 2nd grade class at Paul A. Smith Elementary School in Franklin, NH. They had read about my visit to Mrs. Andrews class and about their Community Challenge project.  After reading the post, they [...]

We Get Mail! Questions from New Jersey

Dear Zuma and friends,
We here at Collingswood Middle School ( Grade 6) in New Jersey have been following the race and learning all about it.  My classmates and I enjoy seeing how our chosen mushers are doing. How exciting! I’ve learned about how the mushers have to carry the symbolic mailbags with them from Anchorage [...]

We Get Mail! Shouting Back to Florida!

Dear Zuma,
We are a third grade class from Jupiter, Florida (like the planet).  We have just finished taking the FCAT and boy we are glad it is over!  The test took us three days (reading and mathematics) and we did our very best. We live 15 minutes from the beach and enjoy the warm weather [...]

We Get Mail! A Shout Out to a Kindergarten Class in Idaho

Dear Zuma, We are in a small kindergarten class from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. We have been wondering if you have ever seen the northern lights in the sky. Can you tell us how those lights get up in the sky and why are they different colors? We think the northern lights look awesome and would [...]

Mount Redoubt

Hi Boys and Girls,
Just a short message about Mt. Redoubt.  Mt Redoubt is a volcano in Alaska and has erupted during the night.  I just heard from Zuma and they are safe at the Millennium.  Here is what Zuma had to say:
Just an update to everyone.  Redoubt blew a couple hours ago and we’ve [...]

Scratched, Withdrawn, Disqualified

Hi Boys and Girls/p>
 
We K9 reporters have received many emails and blog comments asking us what the difference is between a musher who has scratched or was withdrawn from the race.  This is an excellent question for the blog. 
When a musher scratches from the race, he or she makes the decision themselves.  [...]

We Get Mail! Zuma Meets Ross

OOF!
My name is Ross, and I am a different kind of working dog.  I am in training to be a Canine Companions for Independence (www.cci.org) assistance dog. CCI provides dogs free of charge to people with disabilities other than blindness. I am 9 1/2 months old and go to CCI College (aka Advanced Training) in [...]