News-Miner Editorial
And the winner is?
There’s great interest in timely naming of Ice Classic winner(s)
Published Friday, May 16, 2008
“The ice went out!”
“Did you hear? The tripod toppled!”
“What time did you guess? Were you close?”
“I was real close years ago.”
“How many winning tickets are there?”
“How big is the jackpot this year?”
“When will they announce the winner?”
Yes, when indeed will they announce the winner? That’s got to be one of the most-asked questions each year about the Nenana Ice Classic.
The word finally arrived Thursday that there was just one winner of this year’s Ice Classic and its $303,895 jackpot, and that the happy person lives in Anchorage.
It’s been quite a wait for the result to be announced. The ice went out more than a week ago, after all.
Now, we love the Ice Classic, just like thousands of other Alaskans and many people around the world. For nearly a century, the Ice Classic has been a part of the Alaska winter and a harbinger of spring. Each year, volunteers and a few paid people keep the now-famous lottery going. And the whole thing is just a lot of fun.
That said, and with a kind voice, we hope the Ice Classic folks can take measures to ensure a timely public release of the names of the winner or winners. The tripod toppled on May 6, and Thursday was nine days after that event. We do know that the Ice Classic had some problems with a computer printer and that no other printer would work, but that leads us to wonder if maybe the Ice Classic should consider modernizing how it does things. In an era of fast computers and the Internet, it seems there ought to be a way to publicize the winner in a more timely fashion.
The quick announcement of a winning entry or entries would be good for the Ice Classic. The public today, more than ever, wants its news now. We in the communications business are aware of that more than most, but it’s a fact of life nowadays. Events can lose their place in the public’s mind quickly.
The old cliché of “striking while the iron is hot” is so true when competing for the attention of a public that expects information — including the announcement of an Ice Classic winner — to be fresh, not several days old.
Community Discussion
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I for one like how it is done! I like how it takes over a week. I enjoy the uncertainty that goes along with the number of winners.
It's nice that not everything nowadays has to be done at a breakneck speed. I think the organizers should keep it just how it is, a throwback to when people had to wait for news, it's so very Alaskan.
Now if I could only win the darn thing...
I agree with Oscar... in a world of instantaneous (and often premature and incorrect) news, and a constant barrage of information in general, I don't think waiting for the certainty of "recount" will kill anyone... We wait quite a long time for that ice to go out in the first place... On the other hand, if there are things that could be done to make the job more efficient and less hectic for the folks in Nenana, than I'm all for that too. But most of all, I agree with Oscar, that what really needs to happen is for me to win!
I'm with Oscar......do the rest of you not know what time you picked for the tripod? YOU LOST----unless your name is Colleen Cloutier and you're from Anchorage. When it went out I said,like most everybody else, "Samsonite, I was way off!"
Keep the suspense because, unless you actually won, it's not really any of your business, is it?
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I am truly looking forward to moving to Fairbanks from Iowa in July and have been checking out the News Miner website daily. I am interested to know the cost of entering the lottery. Is there a website for the Ice Classic?
google nenana ice classic, I am sure that it is there. This year it was 2.50 a ticket.
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