FARMINGTON — It was a lesson on working together and perseverance as students at the W.G. Mallett School spent March reading their way to Nome through competition in the annual Iditaread.

The Iditaread is in its 20th year at the school, originating when now-retired librarian Betsy Turcotte heard of a school in Alaska using a reading incentive program to follow along with the annual Iditarod race.

The Iditaread has grown in popularity in the school community, incentivizing students to read. Grades one and two read just over 43,325 minutes this year. Kindergarten, who tracked the number of books read, read a total of 2,964 books.

Students were rewarded with a visit from local dog sled racers Mark and Jake Turner. The Turners gave students an overview of some of the equipment needed to become a dogsled racer. Students were especially excited to interact with some of the dogs on his team.

Turner told students that the Iditarod sparked his interest at an early age, which encouraged him to read all the Iditarod books he could. His father, Mark, inspired by his son’s enthusiasm for the sport, invested in a dogsled team and has been “mushing” ever since.

Turner now races his team in sprint races, which are shorter and faster than the distance races like the Iditarod. During a sprint race, dogs may average a speed of 10 to 14 miles an hour.

Throughout the nearly three-week Iditaread race, students also learned about the 1925 “serum run” when a tag-team of mushers raced a life-saving serum for diphtheria from Anchorage to Nome, saving the lives of sick children there. At that time the dogsled teams were the most reliable way to get the antitoxin from Nome to Anchorage, nearly 1,000 miles away.

Years later, in 1974, the first Iditarod race was held in commemoration of the heroic dogsled teams and mushers of that 1925 expedition.

W.G. Mallett School students hear from Mark Turner of Jay about dog sled racing. As a reading challenge, “Iditaread,” the students followed their reading along with Alaska’s Iditarod.