WILMINGTON — Courthouse employees decided to have some fun while helping others by holding a warm sock project in connection with this month’s cold Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across Alaska.
Twenty-two courthouse participants, spearheaded by employees of Clinton County Juvenile and Probate Judge Chad L. Carey, donated 224 pairs of new socks of all sizes to benefit people at the Clinton County Homeless Shelter.
The week of March 6 started with courthouse participants learning a little about the Iditarod and drawing their dog mushers.
“As the week progressed, instead of everyone saying hello in the morning they would ask how are the mushers doing or who is in the lead. It was so much fun to listen to everyone talking about the race and to be able to help others while having some fun,” said Margie Eads, who works in the Juvenile Probation Office.
Seventy-two mushers left Fairbanks, Alaska headed to Nome on a 979-mile journey, with 15 checkpoints along the way. Inside the Clinton County Courthouse, a musher board would be updated each day with all the mushers placed on the checkpoint they had last checked in.
There were several prizes for courthouse participants along the trail prior to the finishing line, such as one for the courthouse staffer whose musher went to sleep before falling off his sled with his dogs racing on to the next checkpoint without him, Eads said.
At the courthouse, the winning participant turned out to be Judge Carey. He was presented with a Matchbox version of a new blue pickup truck similar to what Iditarod first-place finisher Mitch Seavey earned.
The last-place finisher of the Iditarod receives a Red Lantern Award for perseverance. So, Clinton County Juvenile Court Magistrate Mark J. Miars, whose musher Cindy Abbott was the final finisher, received his own version of a red lantern.
But the real winners, of course, are Homeless Shelter residents who will wear the socks contributed by the courthouse’s “dog mushers.”
