Husky News

Iditarod 34 got under way this past weekend with a heavy heart. The passing of Vi Redington, wife of the Iditarod cofounder Joe Redington Sr., at age 81 on Saturday was surely on the minds of many as the field of 83 dog teams began their march to Nome.

Iditarod 34 got under way this past weekend with a heavy heart. The passing of Vi Redington, wife of the Iditarod cofounder Joe Redington Sr., at age 81 on Saturday was surely on the minds of many as the field of 83 dog teams began their march to Nome.

The Redington name is synonymous with dog mushing and with the Iditarod in particular. Joe Sr. died just a few years ago, in 1999, leaving behind a widow beloved by the Iditarod community. That she died having fought cancer for many years, as the Iditarod's ceremonial start unfolded in Anchorage, many will remark that, somehow, it was right, that if the time was at hand, then it was fitting that it be now, with the world watching the event she helped cast.

It was the vision and persistence of Joe and Vi Redington and that of the late Dorothy Page–the mother of the Iditarod, according to the race's own account of its history–that gave Alaska the Iditarod. From its early, short versions in the late 1960s to the establishment of it in 1973 in its 1,000-mile plus form, these Iditarod founders have left a legacy of global proportion. Entrants over the years have come from several European countries, Scandinavia, the former Soviet Union, and Japan. Teams have come from nearly half the U.S. states. Alaska has gained immeasurable publicity from this, most of it good.

Vi, Joe and the other original organizers saw Iditarod champions born, saw the personal victories of people who aspire to a challenge rather than a win, and saw the defeat and despair that the hard trail and a burst of unforgiving weather could bring to both veterans and rookies. They saw their event blossom into an international attraction.

For Joe and Vi Redington, the Iditarod and dog mushing were the life within life.

Today, the more than 5,000 dog paws moving steadily along the trail to Nome in Iditarod 34 are accompanied by the Redington legacy, the legacy of Joe and Vi.

Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner