Training season is upon us. We are slowly starting to run the dogs on a daily basis now that the mornings are cooler. In a couple weeks time, we will be in the full swing of training at our remote camp near Manley Hot Springs, Alaska. In the meanwhile we are working hard to secure the funding and support we need in order to make this upcoming season a success.
This past week we have started three new partnerships with businesses to help us succeed in this endeavor. We would like to welcome SPOT, Northern Auto Brokers and Sullivan’s Steakhouse to the Squid Acres Family for helping us work towards our goal.
For a couple years now, we have been using spot trackers for training, expeditions, and races for folks at home to follow along. We have partnered with SPOT for the upcoming race season to provide more up-to- date messages from multiple SPOT trackers including a SPOT unit that will allow us to send text messages. With this new set up you will be able to follow both Cody and Paige as they train and will get instant text message from the field on facebook as well as on our website . SPOT is giving partial support for the equipment and service and we can’t wait to start testing out this new equipment this fall. You can go to our “follow us” then “SPOT tracker” tab to follow along with up-to-date training and trips.
This past week one of our trucks started to show us some early warning signs that it might be done being a dog food and dog hauling machine. We had taken it to Northern Auto Brokers and were planning to trade it for a truck there on the lot and just needed to run home to get the check book. On the way home the truck stalled out. We waited until the next day to try again and on the way back to town it stalled again. At this point, we figured that they wouldn’t want it anymore. We thought the deal was dead, but Lee at Northern Auto Brokers was nice enough to take it anyways and in place of the couple thousand dollars it would take to fix the oil pump problem, he took at the same trade in value and just asked that we consider him a sponsor. Thanks Lee for setting us up for success and getting us on the road with a good truck!!!
The big news for this week is our new sponsorship from Sullivan’s Steakhouse in Anchorage. They will be helping us financially with our Iditarod and Quest entry fees. They also will be helping us with their food for drop bag meals for both of the races and providing a pre-Iditarod party for Paige, team Squid, and our supporters sometime around the Iditarod. We’ll keep you posted on the development of this event. If you are in downtown Anchorage and looking for a great dining experience, check out what Sullivan’s has to offer and say hello to the general manager,Todd Endres, that has been so helpful in making this all happen!
All of this support is helping us to get towards our goal. Every little thing helps immensely. We still have an enormous amount of money to raise in order to make these big races possible, and more business and corporate sponsors will be needed, but we are headed in the right direction!! If you are someone you know are interested in sponsoring team squid, please contact us or go to our sponsors link.
