NIKOLAI, Alaska -- Social media fans of a rookie Iditarod musher have used their #UglyDogs group to raise money for students at a rural Alaska school.
KTVA in Anchorage reported Tuesday that Twitter followers of musher Blair Braverman helped raise field-trip funds for students at Top of the Kuskokwim School in the race checkpoint town of Nikolai.
The school's principal tells KTVA that fourth-graders hoping to join a district trip to Anchorage were $4,000 short of their goal.
After Braverman posted a link to the televised report, the #UglyDogs site followers raised more than $7,000 in about 24 hours for the students and their chaperones.
Braverman says the group name arose after a social media user told her to "go back to your ugly dogs" and her supporters took up the name.
