Spectators at sled dog races focus mostly on the dogs, but races like the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon would not exist without the help of volunteers. 

Julie Hukriede began volunteering for the Beargrease around eight years ago and says the start of the race is what sparked her interest. 

“It’s just a really fun event, the energy that you draw and get off of the dogs is just incredible, and you can’t explain it until you experience it,” said Julie. “The excitement of the dogs, the excitement of the people, but especially just the dogs, the first time you attended a dog race, it’s just unbelievable.”

Her husband Terry is also a volunteer and was even on the board for seven years. The two of them started by helping at road crossings and have since taken on other responsibilities. 

“She checks in all of the mushers, tells them where to park, and stages them. She’s the timer that also releases them so we have them going to the gate as need be,” said Terry. Then, they go from her, pulled by the ATVs, which probably most people have seen, and then they go to me and I stop them right before they go into the shoot to go off. So it’s every two minutes so it’s kind of an orchestra of a lot of people having to do their job to make it all work.”

Over a hundred people volunteer for the Beargrease each year. 

“Just at the start at Billy’s, I bet there’s 50-60 volunteers there alone. Then you take every trail crossing along the way, you’ve got to have anywhere from five to ten people. They lock arms on each side of the road so that when the dogs come through they don’t try to turn or anything like that,” explained Julie. “I mean, it’s a lot of people, and then you have every checkpoint has volunteers at it that are marking the time that they come in and then marking the time that they go back out, and everything, just from the beginning to end, takes volunteers.”

There are a variety of volunteer positions, including vets. 

“It takes a big vet team of volunteers to do this. All of the vets volunteer their time to make sure the dogs are healthy and safe, and everything’s going off without a hitch,” said Terry. “The day before the pre-race, there’s vet checks and then there’s the opening ceremonies, the bib draw, and then there’s vets along at every checkpoint.” 

Volunteering can involve hours of standing outside in the cold. 

“Most people that get involved with volunteering for the Beargrease have a love for winter and a love for dogs,” said Terry.

Like many volunteers, Julie says seeing the dogs have fun makes the effort worthwhile. 

“It’s what they love to do, and they get excited. They know they know the signals,” said Julie. “They know when it’s time to go and then they get all excited and they start barking. I mean it gets loud.”