Racing Toward Recovery: The Extraordinary Story of Alaska Musher Mike Williams Sr. New edition

Commendation Quotes: I think that the Iditarod can be a platform for more than a single year s race. It is an opportunity to connect with people everywhere. You can squander it or use it. Mike used it. Mike has used it and built it so that he became known as the musher for sobriety. Doing well and being out there is admired in his culture, too. from the foreword by DeeDee Jonrowe, Iditarod musher"Commendation Quotes: Mike understands the level of effort and attention that is required to get people to pay attention to the problem of alcohol in the Bush. He knows and he has never quit. . . . When you think about the lives of Alaska Natives getting better, you think about Mike. from the preface by Doug Modig, Alaska Sobriety Movement leader"Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Description for Sales People: Mike Williams is well-respected figure in Alaska and in Native Alaskan culture. He is a popular musher in the Iditarod. He recognized the destruction facing his family and his people and races for sobriety. He shares his struggles, triumphs, and faith in God in this book. Lew Freedman has written over 75 books. Biographical Note: Mike Williams Sr. is a resident of the village of Akiak in Alaska. He is a longtime competitor in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a leading figure in the Sobriety Movement for Alaska Natives, and an activist for improved living conditions for Natives in the Alaska Bush. Mike Williams is recognized as one of the Great Tribal Leaders of Modern Times. Lew Freedman is an award-winning journalist who lived in Alaska for 17 years and is the author of numerous books on dog mushing and stories from Alaska including Iditarod Adventures. www. LewFreedmanBooks.comCommendation Quotes: "I think that the Iditarod can be a platform for more than a single year's race. It is an opportunity to connect with people everywhere. You can squander it or use it. Mike used it. Mike has used it and built it so that he became known as the musher for sobriety. Doing well and being out there is admired in his culture, too." -from the foreword by DeeDee Jonrowe, Iditarod musherPublisher Marketing: For the first time, Alaska musher and tribal leader Mike Williams shares his remarkable life story with veteran sports writer Lew Freedman. Williams is a man of many parts, a sports figure, a government figure, a leader of his people, a husband, a father, and a Native man with one foot firmly planted in the twenty-first century and another firmly planted in the roots of a culture that dates back 10,000 years in Alaska. Williams competed in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race fifteen times, and was once the only Yup ik Eskimo musher, a symbol to all Natives around the state. Although he was never a top contender for the Iditarod title, he was a competitor whom everyone cheered because he resolved that to shed light on one of Alaska s greatest threats to the health and future of its Native people, he would carry in his dog sled pages pounds worth of signatures of people who had pledged sobriety. A Yup ik Eskimo, Williams saw firsthand how alcohol could devastate people as surely as if they had contracted a deadly flu: each of his brothers had succumbed to alcohol-related accidents, incidents, or illnesses. Williams describes how he recovered from his dependence on alcohol through religion, loved ones, and racing dogs. For many years Williams carried those sobriety pledges in his sled, focusing attention on a troubling, seemingly intractable problem. Williams gained national attention, being profiled by CNN, Sports Illustrated, and Good Morning America. Fellow Iditarod competitors have voted him the most inspirational musher. " Contributor Bio:  Williams, Mike Sr Mike Williams Sr. is a resident of the village of Akiak in Alaska. He is a longtime competitor in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a leading figure in the Sobriety Movement for Alaska Natives, and an activist for improved living conditions for Natives in the Alaska Bush. Mike Williams is recognized as one of the Great Tribal Leaders of Modern Times. Contributor Bio:  Freedman, Lew Lew Freedman