Helmets + kids = a safer future

COURTESY CYNTHIA ERICKSON Children pose for a group photo with 2020 Iron Dog racers during Galena’s winter carnival, which featured free helmets for kids in the community. At right, one lucky girl gets a brand-new helmet. Organizer Doug Dixon said the program is back for the 2022 race. Fine Line Interiors Specialty Truck & Auto Northern Asphalt Summit Windows and Door Pfeffer Development Quintillion 907 Ice Rain Proof Roofing Bering Air Spernak & Son AMVETS Post 49 Alaska Terminals

Iron Dog gives back

Children’s helmet program prmotes riding safety

Doug Dixon has worn many hats over the past two decades of the Iron Dog race – as a racer, board member, volunteer and fund raiser. In 2020, his “hat” was a helmet.

“Basically, we got it started because we were trying to give back to a lot of the communities that we run through during the race,” said Dixon, who is reviving the program for the 2022 race. “You see so many times kids racing into the checkpoints in a hurry to see the racers come through, and they are wearing fur hats and goggles. So, we thought, ‘Why not provide helmets?’”

Dixon’s “Helmet Program,” for lack of a better term, has been a hit. In the 2020 race, he rallied volunteers and solicited donations for kid-sized helmets. Then he relied on pilots and others to deliver those helmets to communities along the racecourse.

“Pat Reilly (of Rain Proof Roofing), for example, would have 15 helmets and would go into communities like Koyuk,” said Dixon, of such supporters. “The kids would come up on their snowmachines and he’d pull out a helmet for them.”

In 2020, Dixon said, the fledgling program handed out 250 helmets in varying child sizes to communities along the racecourse. One of the best celebration points, he said, was in Galena, where he worked with local volunteers to put on a full winter carnival, complete with kids’ snowmachine races, a potlach at the school, and meet-and-greets with the racers as they stopped on their way through.

“We’d have racers like Chris Olds meeting with the kids, and saying, ‘This is why wearing a helmet is good,’ ” he said. “These racers are like mentors to the kids.”

Iron Dog Hall of Famer and longtime volunteer Cynthia Erickson lives in Tanana but helped out at the Galena carnival. She founded My Grandma’s House, which works to uplift children who are exposed to abuse, neglect and experiencing suicide in their communities. She saw the carnival – and the helmet giveaways – as yet another way to bring children in the villages together for a positive experience.

“Anything safety-oriented is always a plus anywhere,” said Erickson. “It starts the process of getting them to thinking about safety and not just jumping on a snowmachine and bombing around. A lot of kids have died in snowmachine accidents and gone through ice, so this really gives them a base of safety and understanding, ... it means a lot to them.”

This year, Erickson is hoping to support the helmet program again by putting on another carnival. The children love the races, and they flourish being the center of attention, if for just a few hours.

“A lot of kids are on their own and pretty much raising themselves in a dysfunctional family,” she said. “The helmet thing was really cool in letting them know they matter.”

Dixon, meanwhile, is planning a carnival in McGrath for this year’s race and envisions a day in which donated helmets and carnivals can be part of every village during Iron Dog race week.

Dixon said the helmet program didn’t happen in 2021 due to COVID restrictions and efforts to keep communities isolated from illness. This year, however, he began contacting sponsors again, and they wholeheartedly stepped up.

Bering Air, for instance, has volunteered time and money to drop off helmets in the nine race communities to which they fly. Other companies, such as Quintillion, a fiber optics company operating in Nome, Kotzebue, Point Hope and Barrow, have covered helmet and fuel costs. The list of donors, he said, is humbling.

“Everyone has been so generous, and they believe in this, for safety, and for the kids,” said Dixon, who estimates that the total cost for all the helmets and associated delivery will be just under $20,000.

This year will feature two types of helmets, Dixon said, purchased at discounted rates of $68 and $97 apiece. Lessons learned in 2020 include ordering better-fitting helmets in sizes that fit the kids.

“The youth sizes are very small, so we ordered more adult sizes for those bigger kids who are 10, 11 and 12,” he said. I think we are on a better path this year, and we are looking forward to it.”

To donate to the Dixon’s Helmet Program, contact him at ddixon@ irondog.org. All donations are tax deductible.