Volunteers and spectators enjoy festive, family-friendly atmosphere of 2020 Iditarod Restart in Willow

WILLOW — Hundreds of volunteers across the state and from around the world congregated to the 2020 Iditarod restart in Willow to ensure a safe experience for the mushers, the dogs and the hoards of happy spectators along the trail.

Many say the Willow restart’s atmosphere is like one big tailgater, or “trailgater” with locals hosting viewing parties from their cabins, rows of vehicles parked in neighborhoods with people walking up to the trail and numerous temporary campsites set up close to the action.

It takes a whole lot of work to host an event of this magnitude, with eyes across the globe watching see how it all unfolds.

The rural and spread out community of Willow put in countless hours before, during and after the restart. Residents from all walks of life donate countless hours of their time year-round, offering their various skill sets and personal resources.

“You have to, to make it work out here. I think that’s just how we do it,” 2020 Iditarod musher Karin Hendrickson said.

Hendrickson was one of several seasoned Willow mushers that took off during the restart March 8. She runs a kennel out of the area and said that she’s lived there for 11 years.

A local Willow family has been serving food out of the Willow Community Center to wave after wave of spectators from around the world for the last three years.

Sarah and Leroy Miller volunteered their time at the community center’s kitchen with their work savvy children and family friends during the 2020 restart.

“It’s just a way to help the community,” Sarah said.

The Millers run North Star Bible Camp and they’ve also volunteered at the Willow Winter Carnival for the last four or five years.

“We believe in serving,” Sarah said. “It makes us better as a whole to serve, especially as a family.”

Another, not as local family set up camp on Willow Lake to watch the mushers take off.

Anchorage resident Emily Erickson spent quality time with her parents who were visiting from Wisconsin.

“I like it. I like all the snow. It’s a little deep,” Erickson’s mother Debbie Tyson said with a laugh.

They’ve gone to three ceremonial starts in Anchorage but this was their first time at the restart.

“It’s the real deal,” Erickson’s father Dave Tyson

Erickson and her family happily watched mushers from the sidelines, taking ski shots and enjoying the family-friendly, tailgater atmosphere. She said the best part was being able to spend all that quality time with her family with so many other friendly families and other attendees around them.

“It’s just a lot of fun and everyone’s really nice. It’s kind of just a big party,” Erickson said with a laugh. “Nice big tailgate, just Wisconsin, like being at a Packer game.”

Longtime volunteer Don Warble has tried nearly every facet of helping Iditarod. He said the beauty of volunteering with the Iditarod is there’s a position for everybody so people can utilize their unique sets of skills and interests.

At 79 years old, Jim Lanier is the oldest musher in the 2020 field of racers. Warble is just a couple of years younger than Lanier. He said that Lanier’s continued efforts are an inspiration and he can relate to that restless spirit.

“I don’t like to sit,” Lanier said with a laugh. “I like being outside.”

Warble said staying active and engaging in activities like mushing and volunteering keeps people his age sharp. Above all, he said lifting others lifts him.

He lives at Wasilla Area Senior Center with his wife and the two actively volunteer in the community, embracing the “volunteer spirit” and living by the saying, “learn, earn and return.”

“I can tell from my own volunteer experience… The faces that are fed with that volunteer spirit… I think it helps my own spirit,” Warble said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com