Best of CASE District I Award
 

Institution: St. Paul's School

Title of entry: Chasing the Sun

About this entry: Tekla Butcher-Monson is the daughter of the most celebrated Iditarod champion of all time, Susan Butcher, who died of cancer in 2006. In searching for alumnae to profile to commemorate the 50th anniversary of coeducation at St. Paul's School, the writer gleaned a small detail from the class notes section of a previous issue of the magazine to conceive a story idea. The note, written by a friend of Tekla, said that Tekla had returned to her native Alaska to raise and train sled dogs. The writer got in touch with Tekla and, in the course of the conversation, discovered that Tekla perfectly fit the theme of the 50th anniversary: Her Purpose. Despite the hardship of maintaining a bush-like homestead and training more than two dozen dogs with only one helper in sub-zero temperatures in remote Eureka, Alaska, Tekla articulated why this was her calling and why she felt compelled to train for the 2024 Iditarod. She has no aspirations of winning this 1,000-mile trek through frozen Alaskan terrain, but is summoning her childhood and the legacy into which she was born as part of a mushing family. Her daily routine throughout the winter includes 40- to 50-mile training runs with eager Alaskan Huskies, not to mention feeding and watering the team and cleaning up after them. Her story is an inspiration and perfectly captures the purpose of anyone going out into the world and following a passion.