Dear Mr. Swingley,

We heard you were retiring and want to wish you the best of luck with your new family and with your retirement. At first we were a little disappointed that you didn't make it in the top 20th place, but as long as you tried your best that's all that matters. For the past 13 days 3 of our 6th grade classes had been following the Iditarod race, we completed assignments and also made mini sleds to compete against each other. The first couple of days you were in the top five and everyone had you as their musher, after you fell off the top everyone choose new mushers. Everyone but our class. Mrs. Kenny's class kept you as our class musher, because we knew whether you won or not you were still p-6's champion!

To follow up the race we checked the weather and anything you could think of we did it. We also decided to have an Iditarod Festival in spirit of the Last Great Race. We had to plan for about 2 weeks. We had to make reservations for the school gym and the play area. We made lots of posters to represent our Fest! The festival took place on Thursday March 21, 2002. We played several games such as Blubber Mittens, blanket-toss, snow storm, and iceberg. We even had a miniature sled race. Overall we had a lot of fun, and we wish you the best of luck!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Kenny's P-6 Class
Okinawa, Japan
Only one way…. Ahead!