Mike Williams lives in Akiak, Alaska. He and everyone else in Akiak are Yu’piks, people who have lived in Alaska for thousands of years. Mr. Williams raises dogs and trains them to pull sleds over the snow during the long winter. Like most Yu’piks, he hunts and fishes to feed his family.

Akiak is one of the poorest places in the United States. There are no jobs in Akiak and many people there are worried and unhappy. Many of them drink too much alcohol, because getting drunk can help them feel better for a little while. Then they feel much worse.

Many of his friends and relatives drink this way. Mr. Williams himself stopped drinking, even though it was very hard to do. When he stopped, his life got much better. He had more time for his work and for his family and he was healthier. He decided to help other people stop so they could make their lives better too.

He wanted to get people’s attention for this idea of changing their lives. He decided to enter the Iditarod, a sled dog race that’s over a thousand miles through the snow! People and dogs come from all over the world to do this race. Every year, it’s on the television news and in newspapers in many countries.

Mr. Williams decided to ask Yu’piks to sign a promise that they wouldn’t drink. He would carry the promise and all their names over the thousand miles. He’d tell the story of their promise on television and in newspapers. It would be a “race for the future” of the Yu’pik people.

He’d never done such a long, dangerous race before. He was pretty sure he and his dogs couldn’t win the race. He wasn’t sure they could even finish the race. And he had to find over $20,000 to pay for the equipment that he and the dogs would need. That was not going to be easy for a guy in Akiak. But Mr. Williams was sure this was a way to help the Yu’piks live better lives, so he started finding the money and training his dogs.

When the Yu’pik people heard about his plan, some of them were angry. They thought he shouldn’t say anything about the Yu’piks who drank too much, even if it was true. But other Yu’piks thought it was a great idea. Over a thousand people signed the promise not to drink. And many of them started helping him get ready for the race. Kids had bake sales and school dances to help raise money. People all over Alaska sent money to help.

Mr. Williams and his sled dogs went to Anchorage, Alaska to start the race. Mile after mile, through the storms and ice, they raced. They had a pretty bad accident. Two of the dogs were injured and the sled was damaged. Mr. Williams had to stop for a whole day to take care of the dogs and get another sled. But he didn’t give up. He got back in the race and made it to Nome, Alaska, 1,049 miles from Anchorage. Mr. Williams and his dogs were the 44th team to get there, but a lot of the sled teams never got there at all.

The other racers said he was number one, not number 44. They loved his courage, his persistence, and his caring for his people. When he was on TV and in the newspapers he showed people the “No more drinking” pledge, people from all over America wrote him letters and many of them sent him promises not to drink. Mike Williams had shown them that people can do really difficult things if they care a lot and just don’t give up.