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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula February 10, 2006 Text and photos © 2006 Wade Wainio, with information on winners from Michigan Tech University News. Reprinted with permission.

Behind the scenes: MTU Winter Carnival 2006

By Wade Wainio

HOUGHTON -- Each year, Michigan Tech's Winter Carnival leaves Houghton with new and different snow statues to see. Those entered in the snow statue contest follow a theme. In the past, themes have ranged from fairy tales to great feats of mankind frozen in time. This year's theme was "Cartoon Art for the Young at Heart." 

Walking around Wednesday night while students put the finishing touches on statues they'd been building for several weeks, or actually put an entire statue together in one night for the "All-Nighter" competition, I could appreciate the amount of work that went into these "cartoon" creations.

Delta Sigma Phi's entry, "Aladdin in the Land of Frozen Sand," depicts a market scene in front of a castle, including this impressive snake. On Wednesday night, Wade Wainio captured some of the final work on this frosty diorama, which took first place among the university's highly competitive fraternities. It is located in front of the Delta Sigma Phi house, 1421 Woodland Road, near Wadsworth Hall. (Photo © 2006 Wade Wainio.)

Even the smaller statues require a significant hours of work and creative visualization. To help them in their efforts, Tech students relied on teamwork, loud music from stereos (the loudest one being a speaker made of ice) and the know-how of the experienced.

I talked to three representatives of campus organizations: Shannon Healy of Alpha Sigma Tau, Paul Wisner of Tau Kappa Epsilon and Keegan Burggren of Delta Sigma Phi.

Keegan Burggren of Delta Sigma Phi takes a short break for a photo during Wednesday night's construction of "Aladdin in the Land of Frozen Sand." (Photo © 2006 Wade Wainio.)

The inspirations for the various statue designs varied. Shannon Healy, for example, told me her group chose the Flintstones because of the variety of ideas and fond memories of the cartoon.

Keegan Burggren, on the other hand, said Aladdin was chosen by his organization because "different aspects of our statue would make it look better than others." But, putting the competitive aspect aside, most would agree the reasons behind the event go deeper. Everyone agreed Winter Carnival is a significant tradition at MTU and a way to work as a team and interact with the community.

I did not get many snow statue-building tips, but Keegan gave a few helpful hints on the process: First, one has to come up with a good design. Next, one has to create a base. Then plywood should be applied. The next step is to sculpt the snow by using a hose and stomping the snow into layers.

Alpha Kappa Psi chose as their subject the Frylock of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a fairly new and popular cartoon on the Cartoon Network. (Photo © 2006 Wade Wainio.)

Despite the warm weather, the statue building efforts continued. Regardless of who wins, the tradition will no doubt continue so long as there is still snow and a Michigan Technological University.

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