#4 – Black Swan

The Black Swan is meant to represent both guile and sensuality. When we saw the leg hair curling through those tights we should’ve known we were in for neither. Surprisingly, these manly men were too dainty to take their cart home.

#25 – Run Like The Winded

There’s something heartwarming about a few work bro’s getting together for a good cause. Sadly, the deflated Corona bottle makes for a good metaphor for the amount of effort they put into it. Chiditatip #17: Poor preparation and lack of follow-through is no way to get a raise.

#218 – TMNLGBT

While we didn’t explicitly say you couldn’t leave the remains of your cart in the Bottom Lounge dumpster, we expected everyone to know better.

 
 
#272 – Secret Service Me

Nothing like 5 dudes and a cardboard box to protect you from… well, nothing. These guys couldn’t even save their cart from that sneaky brick wall. Don’t worry, secret agents get plenty of second chances.

#296 – Team T-Rexy

Imagine Dr. Alan Grant’s surprise when he learned the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park could breed. Let’s hope for no surprises from T-Rexy, it seems they’re capable of leaving quite a mess in their wake.

Do better next year. We’re disappointed, but we still love you.

Chiditarod VIII

Number of meals served: 14,128

Poundage of Food Collected: 16,953

Fundraising: $34,362

Chiditarod VIII mushed into the record books on Saturday March 2, 2013. Costumed teams of 5 humans ran a 4.8ish mile race between 5 of 7 local checkpoints in Chicago’s West Town, Wicker Park, and Ukranian Village neighborhoods. Uniting 149 racing teams and nearly 300 volunteers, some have said it was the greatest Chiditarod to date.

Our teams, checkpoints, and volunteers catapulted Chiditarod’s hunger fighting efforts to new heights in 2013. The Greater Chicago Food Depository returned as the beneficiary of our epic food drive. They reported a total weigh-in of a whopping 16,953 pounds, equating to 14,128 meals to feed Chicago’s hungry. Our checkpoints held food drives for the first time, netting 749 pounds.

 
* Updated as of March 24th with Phyllis’s food collection amounts.

People’s Choice Award

No Chiditarod results would be complete without a few after-the-race prizes. As anyone who’s participated in Chiditarod will tell you – there’s far more going on than any one, let alone twenty, persons can observe and acurately judge, especially in such a short amount of time.  It takes days, weeks, months for all of the pictures, footage, stories, and bruises to heal. That’s why we honor a few select teams after the glory of race day. This year we bring you the People’s Choice award, resoundingly going to: Action-Squad. Check out the quotes from our post-race survey:

Come on, it was a badass dinner.
They gave me coffee
Killer cart, good peeps, what else do you need?
They had a real diner set up on their cart!
Awesome cart. Best out there.
The diner cart was awesome.
Action Squad operates on another plane of epicness.  I think other teams show-up just to see what Action Squad is going to do.
Good group – friendly – sets the bar.
Their cart was awesome and they gave out pie!
They always stayed in costume acted as diner servers the entire day. Fed many people! Extremely hospitable!!
Their cart was amazing!! They even cooked on it, and I had no idea it was actually a cart. they were super nice and fun. stellar.
Great cart  Friendly service  Good pie
They were very nice giving out food and coffee. Also, their cart was beyond impressive.
Amazing skill, creativity, and functionality!
They were kind, fun, and really into the event. They helped make me want to do this again!
Not only was their cart amazing, but they were serving breakfast and coffee in the yard and all along the race AND they were super friendly the entire day. They were wonderful!
Amazing cart!

** Fundraising Details: Area 3 Allstars fundraised in 2 ways. They used the GCFD’s fundraising website ($7,610.50), and raised the remaining funds on race day which goes towards the Chiditarod Foundation ($1,375). All remaining funds by all other teams are going towards the Foundation. There are expenses related to all of this fundraising — fees from our online partners WePay, Paypal and Dwolla will be reported once all accounting is complete.

All are ready to download for non-commercial purposes under creative commons license. Enjoy!

Each year, Chiditarod happily gains popularity and welcomes a controlled amount of newcomers. A result of this growth is that more unsuspecting folks become potential `easy targets` for saboteurs. For the second consecutive year, we emailed a post-race survey to all members of the Chiditarod VII teams. The following report was generated from those survey responses, focusing on:

1. The responders’ years of participation in the Chiditarod
2. The relationship between a racer’s level of experience and the likelihood that they dished out or received sabotage.

It has Charts and Stuff and Things.

Behold: The 2012 Chiditarod Sabotage Report.

CONCLUSIONS

• An interesting find — Men are 45% more likely than women to be saboteurs.
• First, we have a great representation among our racers in terms of age and gender. We’re happy about this. We really hope you guys keep coming out to play. We like you.
• Second, sabotage continues to get more and more creative every year. Racers force us to re-think our sabotage taxonomy every year, because they keep doing crazier and crazier stuff.
• Third, the trend that we thought we were seeing—of first time racers falling victim to sabotage more often—seems to be disappearing. Either we were wrong the first time around, or newbies are coming to the race wiser and more prepared, or racers are getting more equitable with their wanton destruction.
• Fourth, since we have more males reporting acts of sabotage than females, we can assume one of two things. Either there really are more male saboteurs than female, or men just like telling their war stories in the survey more than women do. So, women, you are either much nicer, or less of a braggart. Either way, you win.

But always keep in mind:

• We do this for our fellow Chicagoans who suffer from food insecurity.
• We do this together because we are stronger together, as a community, than we are as individuals.
• We do this for each other and with each other because we are all equally rad.
• It’s all in good fun!

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Buck up, campers, and keep being excellent to each other. Mush!

Food Drive – 2nd Place



Food Drive – 3rd Place



People’s Choice



2nd Place Time



3rd Place Time



Spirit of Chiditarod



Best Sabotage



Most Honorable Dishonorable Mention



Rookie of the Year Award



2nd best Art Cart



2nd Best in Show



3rd Best in Show



Best Food Cart



Best Costume

??? – Area 3 Allstars
$5,790.01 – Action Squad… by ONE CENT!
$5,790.00 – Derailers
$1,345.00 – Bathing Beauties
$900 – 3 Girls, a Stache, and a Tail, 7th Edition
$715 – The Secret Gentlemen’s Club
$425 – Freakalicious
$295 – Honky Tonk Angels
$130 – Paddy Whackery
$105 – Wigs Jacked for Jesus
$95 – Mustachios
$60 – Dance Experiment
$0 – Twinkies
$0 – Discovery Channel
$0 – Zoo Crackers
$0 – Get Rid Of Slimy Girls

CORRECTION: Teams that do additional fundraising day of the Race must hand in total contributions no later than 5pm at the Time-in table at the Finish Line.  Write YOUR TEAM NAME & # on the sealed envelope.

And let’s not forget the ADDITIONAL fundraising at ChiditaPROM from earlier in the month:

The Derailers – $560 *[monies included in online tracking]
Action Squad – $405 *[monies included in online tracking]
The Bathing Beauties – $155
I Fucking Love Cake – $96
Something Like That – $95
Wigs Jacked For Jesus – $75
Hobo Q – $66
Mustachios – $45
3 Girls, A Stache, and a Tail, 7th Edition – $45
The Sunnyside Girls – $45
The Exceptional Children – $40
Who’s Your Doggy – $30
Area 3 Allstars – $30
The Paddy Wagon – $20
Honkey Tonk Angels – $16
Rogue Squadron – $15
Robbers – $15
Mario Cart – $15
Hellzapoppin – $12
We raise funds using the WePay system, which takes a percentage fee of each transaction, which is not reflected in the numbers listed above. Prom numbers represent post-fee fundraising. Stay tuned for more details as we complete this year’s race fundraiser.

Prefer to read things? All of the important information is below:

Before Race Day:

- Register and pay your team registration fee

- Pay your cart deposit fee

- Print off online team registration form and 5 liability waivers for team members to sign

- Decorate your cart!

On Race Day

- Bring pre-signed forms with you

- Bring the minimun number of donated canned/ dried food- in a bag, easy for weighing

- Bring an awesome happy attitude

Registration Line

- No walk-up/ same-day registration

- All 5 members must be present to enter. If one is missing you will be sent to the end of the line

- Listen to all instructions. Please help us by doing what is asked of you

Registration

- Know your registered team name– write it on your forehead if you need to. Forgetting your team name slows everything down

- Attach team number to cart

- Hand in forms and receive your unique race route/ time card packet

- Get wristbanded

- Get team photographs

- Drop off your food

During the Race

- Don’t mess with police

- Don’t litter

- no peeing in public

- Bring your ID

(Chicago, February 19, 2013)–  As the annual Chiditarod draws near, the checkpoints are preparing to accept food donations from neighbors, racers and regulars two weeks in advance of this years race.  The broadened food collection system is hoped to increase both the visibility of our partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, our food collection beneficiary since 2012, as well as increase the total food amounts collected.  In the past, non-perishable food has been collected from racing teams and donations accepted from food producers.

The Chiditarod is an annual race known as an Urban Iditarod.  It is based on the Alaskan Iditarod dog sled race.  Held on the same day in Chicago, the local version substitutes shopping carts for sleds, and people in costume for dogs in fur.  Each team has 4 pullers and 1 musher.  Carts and participants are decked out in theme décor, and are expected to stop for rest periods at checkpoints, all of which turn out to be taverns.

From February 19th until Race Day (March 2nd), all checkpoints will also act as food collection locations including Bottom Lounge – 1375 W Lake St, Club Foot – 1824 W Augusta Ave, Cobra Lounge – 235 N Ashland Ave, Boundary – 1932 W Division St, Five Star – 1424 W Chicago Ave, Mahoney’s – 551 N Ogden Ave, Phyllis’s Musical Inn – 1800 W Division St and Roots Pizza – 1924 W Chicago Ave. Food collection bins and pick-up services are being generously provided by Greater Chicago Food Depository.

“Right now, 1 in 6 people in Cook County doesn’t know when or where their next meal is coming from,” said Kate Maehr, executive director and CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. “The more than 12,000 pounds of food and $7,000 collected and donated by Chiditarod in 2012 helped us provide more than 31,000 meals for hungry people across our community. We are grateful for this support and we look forward to the impact Chiditarod will make on hunger this year.”

“This cause resonates with everyone, since we all know what hunger feels like,” said Chiditarod founder Devin Breen. “When we reflect that for some it is a constant challenge, it is impossible to do nothing. If it takes racing through Chicago streets in ridiculous costumes and with shopping carts to address this problem, we will do so.”

He added that the Greater Chicago Food Depository has been “an awesome partner” by making collection and donation easy and by understanding that “charity can be madcap as well as solemn.”

Download the Press Release PDF


Photos? You want photos? Gnarly. Check out the Official Prom Photo gallery by Rodder High photographer Justin Goh. The RedEye got into the spirit, too. Here’s their prom gallery by photographer Hilary Higgins.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who donated items for our prize drawing! There was some really amazing items. There were 162 of you who braved the cold to party down with us in massive style. It was definitely a night to remember. As promised, here are totals for each team that fundraised by selling tickets and donating items to the prize drawing. Each open bar prom ticket cost $35. $20 of each ticket went directly to the bar, netting a total of $15 fundraised per ticket. Open Bar tickets cost $20 and 100% of that amount goes towards fundraising. The amounts below are the ticket sales (minus the cost to the bar) combined with the amount of funds raised in the prize drawing.

The Derailers – $560
Action Squad – $405
The Bathing Beauties – $155
I Fucking Love Cake – $96
Something Like That – $95
Wigs Jacked For Jesus – $75
Hobo Q – $66
Mustachios – $45
3 Girls, A Stache, and a Tail, 7th Edition – $45
The Sunnyside Girls – $45
The Exceptional Children – $40
Who’s Your Doggy – $30
Area 3 Allstars – $30
The Paddy Wagon – $20
Honkey Tonk Angels – $16
Rogue Squadron – $15
Robbers – $15
Mario Cart – $15
Hellzapoppin – $12

 
* The formerly posted number of $4,181 did not take into account expenses like the sashes, collars, containers for the prize drawing infrastructure. Apologies for jumping the gun; we were so excited!