(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — On the Near West Side, costumed revelers with souped-up shopping carts race along the sidewalks, for the annual CHIditarod this weekend.
Local brass band Environmental Encroachment livened up the CHIditarod starting line at Fulton Street and Ashland Boulevard, as a couple hundred people in teams of 5 were unleashed on Chicago’s West Town and Ukrainian Village neighborhoods on Saturday.
They were mushing decorated shopping carts along the sidewalks in the charity race loosely based on the Alaskan Iditarod.
“We’re the CHIditadogs this year,” said Schaumburg resident Gavin Miller, who has been building uniquely artistic race carts for the CHIditarod since 2008
This year, his team has gone bigger and more ridiculous than ever before, with a 24-foot-long hot dog, made up of four shopping carts as their entry.
“We're actually have a kitchen inside, making hot dogs ready to serve for people. We have veggie dogs. We have regular dogs.”
Some CHIditarod carts are built for art, others for speed. More than a million pounds of food has been raised for the Greater Chicago Food Depository since 2006.
The event is the brainchild of Devin Breen.
“A race? Sure. A charity event? Absolutely! A spectacle of creativity, chaos and anarchy? You bet,” he said to the crowd of racers at the start line.
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