Fifth grade students at Lincoln Elementary recently had an amazing and unique experience. In December, Mrs. Purdy’s class submitted an application to provide centerpieces for the 2019 Iditarod Musher Banquet. The Iditarod is an annual long-distance sled dog race, and Alaska’s best-known sporting event. It is run in early March, from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska.
The class received notification in January that they had been selected, and Mrs. Purdy began the search for material for their centerpieces. She contacted Rick Hall (HCCSC parent and owner of Hall’s Landscaping) to see if he would be able to cut some wood for their project. Mr. Hall contacted another community member, Stan Bippus, and he donated beautiful walnut wood for the class to use.
The students selected a musher, and used carbon paper to transfer the profile of their musher onto the wood. They used a wood burning tool to burn the image into the wood, and wrote the musher’s name beside their profile. Once the centerpieces were finished, they were packed up and sent to Anchorage, Alaska.
Guests at the banquet took some photos of the centerpieces and sent them to the Lincoln students. “We were over-the-moon excited to have our centerpieces displayed at the banquet. We are thankful for this experience, and the opportunity for Huntington, Indiana, to be involved in such a major event in Alaska. We have enjoyed following the Iditarod, and we have all learned so much,” stated Julie Purdy.