Kurt Reich- Rookie Musher

I would like to introduce you to Kurt Reich, age 47, from Divide, Colorado. He was born in Wisconsin and was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. I think that is one reason we were able to adopt him, Memphis is only about 6 hours from where we live in South Arkansas. We can relate to the South! Kurt moved his family from Memphis to Colorado in 1994 because of his “love for the mountains.” After 25 years as a computer engineer and executive, Kurt retired in 2004 to raise his two children, Robert, now 14 and Lauren, now 11. His wife, Lisa, of 20 years is a Business Principal for FedEx.
Kurt enjoys attending church and teaches Sunday School. He is an ex-skydiver, ex-GS ski racer and now skies. He also coaches a youth soccer team and loves hunting and fishing.
Kurt has been mushing for six years and started with Siberians,but now uses Alaskan Huskies. He is a professional breeder of Siberian Huskies and owner of Black Diamond Sled Dogs of Colorado. He says the Great Serum Run inspired him to run the Iditarod. Kurt is doing this for charities. He is trying to raise $500,000 for five different charities. He claims the school of hard knocks is where he has learned most of what he knows! His favorite book as a child was Call of the Wild.
Kurt knows that an Iditarod team can encounter many obstacles and he says that he is running on faith. In addition to the mandatory items, Kurt will be taking many prayers from many people. He has trained very hard for this race, just ask his dogs!! He ran qualifying races in the Cascade Quest 200 and the Seney 300, in these races he learned that dogs can climb mountains and they can go longer without sleep than humans can. Kurt feels like the most challenging aspect of the race will be going without sleep. So when I ask what will you do after the race, his immediate answer was Sleep!
If you happen to see a musher wearing an Arkansas Razorback jersey out on the Iditarod Trail, it will be Kurt Reich, representing his adopted family, Gardner Strong Elementary in Strong ,Arkansas!!
Go Kurt!! We are behind you all the way to Nome.

By: Paula Medlin
Gardner Strong Elementary
Strong, Arkansas