The
2009 Serum Run Turns Back- MARCH
2, 2009 NENANA, ALASKA - Mushers and
snowmachiners on the 2009 Norman Vaughan Serum Run have
had to make the tough decision to pull the plug on this
years expedition. Bombarded with problems from Nenana. Starting
with a missing snow machiner from Nome, planning to ride
down by snowmachine to Nenana for the start, he broke down
near Unalakleet, but at the time no one knew that. A search
team was called out. He was fine, just broke down, now waiting
for parts to meet up with the group, but parts were delayed.
Then two machiners ran into mechanical problems near Manley,
one so bad he had to get a new snow machine and tow the
seized up machine into Manley. The other machiner waited
in Manley for parts that had to be flown in from Fairbanks.
This delayed the expedition an extra day. Then the real
fun started. The trail between Tanana and Ruby was gastly,
bottomless trails, snow at times up to their armpits. They
tried to make a go of it, on that day, a member of the expedition
started getting sypmtoms of a heart attack and was medavaced
back to Anchorage (she is fine now). They hoped if they
could fly the dog teams to Ruby all would be good, the machines
could manuever the trails and catch up. But, that wasn't
happening. Pulling huge sleds, filled with gear and dog
food was just too much for the soft deep trails. One machine
after another was swallowed up in the deep snow. So now
there's dog teams in Galena, with no supplies to move forward
and snow machiners who cannot get past Tanana. The decision
was made today for the machiners to head back to Nenana
and the mushers be flown back to Anchoarge. As Norman Vaughan
used to say "Dream Big, Dare to Fail". He told
me once, "you don't always make it the first time,
but you just keep trying" he said "It's all an
adveture".
Serum Run Hits Deep Snow - The 2009 Serum
Run expedition confronts deep snow. The leadersof the
group decided to fly the teams & dog sleds from Tanana
to Ruby, on planes chartered from Wright Flying Services
in Fairbanks. Concerns over snow depth and trail conditions.
(There was 3-12" of new snow on top of existing 4'
to 6' of snow in the area, depending on location, with
more expected.) So, the group should be in Ruby later
today. They were going to need a few trips in the planes
to move all the dogs & stuff. The snow machiners,
meanwhile, are going overland along the planned route,
and anticipate meeting up with the dog teams in Ruby.
You can track their progress on SPOT trackers - click
here
2009 medical mission for the Serum Run is stroke prevention
" Alaska Natives continue to experience high stroke
mortality despite a drop in stroke mortality in the general
US population. The epidemiology of stroke has not been
well studied in Alaska Natives. The aim of the Alaska
Native Stroke Registry is to conduct statewide surveillance
of stroke to study this disparity in stroke outcomes and
to improve management and care of these stroke patients.
" (Trimble, 2006) The Alaska Native Stroke Registry Team
is honored to have been selected for the medical mission
of this year's Serum Run. The message we want to get out
to the villages along the way is that Prevention of Stroke
through reduction of risk behaviors is critical. Additionally,
Early Recognition of Stroke and FAST action when someone
is showing signs of an impending stroke is critical to
saving precious brain cells. We are launching the Act
F.A.S.T. campaign as part of this outreach. Attached is
the brochure that was modified last year to be culturally
appropriate for our urban communities as well as our rural
areas. Click
here for brochure (PDF) |
