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Celebrating the snow: Alaska festival celebrates winter's passage

Airman, July, 2004 by Chuck Roberts

In 1935, a few citizens of Anchorage, Alaska, came up with the idea of a party to celebrate the beginning of the end of winter. It also provided an opportunity for fur traders to sell their wares directly to the customer in an effort to cut out the middleman.

This encounter between trapper and buyer spawned the name for the annual event--Fur Rendezvous, or Fur Rondy as it's more commonly called--that has evolved into one of the largest winter festivals in North America.

For about two weeks in February, approximately 70 percent of the population in this city of more than 260,000 takes part in the festivities such as dog sled races down city streets, ice sculpting, carnival rides, snowshoe softball, a masquerade ball and the start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

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Joining the throng of humanity this year was about 150 Airmen from nearby Elmendorf Air Force Base. Each year, base volunteers turn out in force to assist primarily with crowd control during the opening parade and events spread throughout the event.

Their presence is highly appreciated and appropriate at an event that focuses on bringing the community together, said Mike Brown, a commercial fisherman during the summer and the Fur Rondy operations manager during winter.

"This is a military town, and it always has been," he said while troubleshooting a parking plan snafu before the Fur Rondy Sno-Cross snow machine (as snowmobiles are referred to in Alaska) race got underway.

"It's a good mix--a good fit," he said of the Air Force contribution to the festival that has grown so large in popularity and composition that in 1956 a full-time staff was created to devote year-round attention to the event. Not only do Airmen provide "fantastic" support, but they also know how to take orders, Mr. Brown joked.

Cops and crowds

He may have lucked out with the group of Air Force volunteers he had scattered about herding arriving spectators into a frozen parking lot surrounded by mountainous walls of snow. Members of the 3rd Security Forces Squadron might have been the most highly trained volunteers on hand that day to perform their task.

Among them was Staff. Sgt. Jeremy Hodges, a patrolman who said he enjoyed helping with Fur Rondy. "It lets us get out in the community," he said. "It's nice to be able to give something back."

Coincidentally, police were needed later that day when a spectator commandeered a racer's snowmobile and wrecked it into a crowd of spectators, some of whom had to be transported to a local hospital. After the driver recovered and tried to flee the scene on foot, a spectator took the law into his own fist and decked him.

As Sergeant Hodges spoke, the whine of snowmobiles could be heard as racers got in a few practice laps on a race track that resembled a crater field covered with snow. Man and machine would suddenly shoot into the air above the heads of spectators surrounding the track each time racers attacked the frozen mounds dotting the course.

Perched on a steep snow bank marking the entrance to the event stood Airmen 1st Class Scott Roy and Terre Gales, also from the base security forces squadron.

"It's all about community. Community involvement is very important," Airman Gales said about why he volunteered to help with Fur Rondy. Being from Hampton, Va., another largely military town, he said he's familiar with community support for the military. But he added that along with being the biggest state with the biggest mountain in North America, Alaska also has the most enthusiastic military supporters.

"This is the most patriotic state in the country," he said. "If they find out you're in the military, they love you and take care of you." Likewise, he said he loves Alaska and the opportunity to explore world class camping, fishing, horseback riding and hunting. And both Airmen said admiring the beauty of the Chugach Mountains towering above the base is something they never grow tired of.

The dream comes true

Master Sgt. Kenneth Lawson had been trying to see those mountains for 18 years. That's how long Alaska has topped his dream sheet. The production superintendent assigned to the 732nd Air Mobility Squadron drove 4,000 miles from Tucson, Ariz., to Anchorage with his dog, Mandy, to get there.

He heard about Fur Rondy before he arrived. He heard it was big, and he wanted to be a part of it.

"I wanted to get out into the community and see what Alaska is like. I want to be part of Alaska. I don't want to hibernate for four years," said Sergeant Lawson, who was pulling parking lot duty at the dog weight pull event.

Nearby, dog owners stood with their assorted canines as they waited to hitch their hounds to sleds weighted down with cement blocks. Some wilted not from the weight, but from stage fright induced by hundreds of onlookers cheering encouragement.

Among them were Master Sgt. Craig Wilson, his wife, Renee, and 15-year-old daughter Brittany. It was their third year in Alaska, and they also were volunteering at the weight pull. They'll be able to attend one more Fur Rondy before moving next spring. As with many, putting down roots in Alaska took awhile to develop, but now the family will miss the outdoor paradise where they can see porcupines, eagles, moose, lynx and bears with a drive around base.

Celebrating the snow: Alaska festival celebrates winter's passage

Airman, July, 2004 by Chuck Roberts

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