UK supporters collect fire funds

UNITED KINGDOM — Those who follow the Iditarod and Yukon Quest sled dog races know fans who live far beyond Alaska’s borders. But some of those fans have become firefighters, of sorts, through Facebook.

Stacey Pike of Wales started a closed Facebook group earlier this year to raise awareness and potentially funds for Yukon Territory musher Rob Cooke’s Iditarod debut (he finished 50th this year). Monday, Pike, Cooke, Judy Wakker, Rob McLennan, Britny Alfonzetti and Melinda Shore began a new group called “Willow Fire Support Group UK” to reflect their support of Willow mushers in recuperating after the Sockeye fire.

“Many of us know Willow mushers and my husband Hugh and I have been there so we were all very worried for the mushers and their dogs and other animals,” Wakker wrote in an email Saturday afternoon.

Wakker, who lives in Scotland with her husband and a pack of Siberian Huskies, said she first came to Alaska in 2002 to watch the Iditarod, and returned for a summer visit in 2005. The Wakkers handled dogs for Cooke as he prepared to run the Yukon Quest for the first time in 2013. This year, Hugh Wakker returned for Cooke’s first Iditarod.

McLellan and Alfonzetti are also friends of Cooke’s — he witnessed the couple’s Alaska wedding this past March.

“We spent a lot of time in Willow and well, (it’s) really sad the places we used to train were burned down,” McLellan wrote in a private message.

The support group was set up as an auctioning platform for mushers and fans to post photos of items to be sold after users bid via Facebook comment.

“It was meant to be just for the UK but it just flew — helped by people like the Yukon Quest, (1980 Iditarod winner) Joe May, (Iditarod artist) Jon Van Zyle and (2015 Quest winner) Brent Sass offering up items,” Cooke wrote in a private Facebook message.

One group of items Sass put up for bid — a signed “Wild and Free” hooded sweatshirt, pint glass and patches — was going for £200, or about $317, as of 5 p.m., Saturday.

Since the group started overseas, administrators have asked for bids in British pounds. Although the group’s membership — now greater than 3,650 — includes U.S. and other non-British supporters, the bidding remains in pounds for continuity. It is the auctioneer’s choice to pay postage or not. All proceeds go to the Willow Dog Musher’s Association.

Due to the explosion of traffic, however, administrators have decided to call an end to all auctions today, so they can start processing payments as necessary.

As of 6 p.m., Saturday, the group had raised $22,000 with 254 auction packages. Pike said there are another 100 to 150 items yet to be catalogued.

“We are all overwhelmed at the amount raised,” Wakker wrote. “We know money cannot begin to put right the awful devastation the fire has caused but we hope it can help just a little.”

No more new item listings will be posted but bidding will remain open until midnight Alaska Standard Time on Friday, June 26.

To see items available for auction, visit on.fb.me/1TEMAW3. Must be logged into Facebook and request to join the group.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 907-352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.