MSU students, grads craft colossal snowman
January 11, 2011
Elizabeth Stiles, left, and Richard Carroll, right, work to perfect the large snowman.
By PAUL SIMS
sdnnews@bellsouth.net
Several Mississippi State University students and graduates came together in a Starkville yard Monday to build a creation from snow that literally became larger than life.
Richard Carroll, a senior in Spanish from Vicksburg, says the idea struck Sunday night.
“We settle for nothing less than perfection,” Carroll said on the lawn of the home on Nathan Hale Drive where the snowman took shape.
Josh Walden, an MSU civil engineering graduate from Corinth who works for the Mississippi Department of Transportation says the group built the first stage at the bottom.
They then took two 2-by-10 boards and formed them in a V-shape to use as they rolled the second section up to the base level, Walden said.
For the final stage, they backed up a pickup truck to the snowman, then converted its bed to a work platform.
They pushed the last section up a ramp, then worked to steady and fit the “head” in place.
Walden says the group “just kind of played it by ear.”
After setting the top section in place, the group took a few minutes to gather various and sundry finishing touches, including a hat, a maroon wig, facial features, a tie, buttons and cowbells at the base.
The completed snowman stood more than 7 feet tall.
Others who worked on the project included Hunter Greene, a freshman in operational meteorology from Atlanta, Ga.; Allison Bates, a junior English education major from Florence; Elizabeth Stiles, a recent MSU graduate in special education from Saltillo and Shelli Henry, a junior kinesiology major from Starkville.
