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NEWS RELEASE

Alaskans will spot a familiar face in this year’s Tournament of Roses Parade

Anchorage, Alaska - Dec. 30, 2008 – Iditarod legend Libby Riddles will again take part in Alaska’s history aboard the state’s first-ever Tournament of Roses Parade float in Pasadena, Calif. on Thursday.

Riddles will join other Alaska athletes and performers on the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau’s float, entitled “Celebrating Alaska — Spirit of the Wild” a tribute to Alaska’s 50th anniversary of statehood.

“What better way to help celebrate Alaska’s 50th birthday than in the spotlight of the famous Tournament of Roses Parade,” said Riddles. “I’m so happy to join other Alaskans and represent our state on the float.”

A musher since 1976, Riddles has been racing sled dogs, writing books, dog wrangling in films and giving lectures to help support her sled dog habit. After moving to Alaska at age 17, she entered her fist sled dog race in 1978. After placing 18th in the 1980 Iditarod and 20th in the 1981 Iditarod, Libby secured her most historic title in 1985 becoming the first women ever to win the Iditarod. Her win not only made Riddles a household name in Alaska but helped move the Iditarod from inside the sports selection of the nation’s newspapers and into the national spotlight.

The float will feature elements of Alaska Native culture including five Alaska masks each representing one of Alaska’s major Native culture groups, two traditional kayaks, a steam locomotive, a team of six sculpted huskies and other sculpted animals indigenous to Alaska.

Riding with Riddles aboard the “Spirit of the Wild” is Miss WEIO (World Eskimo-Indian Olympics), Kimberly Dullen of Fairbanks, Alaska, WEIO Record Holder Manuel Tumuluk, Stephen Blanchett of the Native American Music Award-winning group Pamyua, winners of the ACVB’s Tournament of Roses Sweepstakes Kolin O’Daniel, of Fairbanks and Carey Ann Libershall and others.

Viewers can watch Riddles in the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 2009 from 8-10:30 a.m. on ABC, NBC, Univision, HGTV, the Travel Channel, and Discovery HD, as well as KWHY and KTLA in greater Los Angeles, Calif. The parade will be seen by more than one million on-site spectators and 40 million television viewers in the United States, and will be televised to 150-plus territories around the globe.

For more information on Alaska’s float in the Tournament of Roses Parade, visit www.Anchorage.net/roses.

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Media Contacts:

Jeanette Anderson Moores
Public Relations
Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau
jmoores@anchorage.net
(907) 276-4118
Explore www.Anchorage.net

Jennifer Thompson
Public Relations
Bernholz and Graham
jennifer@bernholzandgraham.com
(907) 561-4488