Mr. Morton's class lives vicariously through Marco and Mr. Day - By Michelle Libby

 

Marco, the moose, is much like a “Flat Stanley”, but this moose belongs to the students in Donna Morton’s fourth grade class. This year Marco has been touring the world with the father of one of the students in the class. Kevin Day is a pilot for UPS and travels internationally for work. He agreed to bring Marco along. 

“Marco has been to 30 different international cities,” Day said. When Morton told him the class was discussing the polar region and the Iditarod, Day was excited as he had been to the race for the last four years and was planning to go again this year. He suggested that the class make good luck cards to one male musher and one female musher that he could hand deliver. 

“What I like is sometimes school and geography can be boring, but if you make it personal and you bring a stuffed animal it makes it more personal,” he said. 

This year the students will be following Newton Marshall of the Jamaican Bobsled Team and Anna and Kristy Berington, identical twins. Day had a friend take video of him giving the racers the good luck card.

Day compared the Iditarod to tailgating at a football game. “They’re out on Long Lake with their snow machines and grills. It’s a carnival atmosphere,” he said. 

There were 70 teams registered and only 65 started the “officially” 1,049 mile race. (It’s actually a little longer.)

 

“(The class) gets very excited to see me. They have so many questions,” Day said. “Mrs. Morton is over the top with excitment.”