Pauline Parker started building a snowman in July — no snow needed!
Her goal was to make a personalized, nearly life-sized snowman for every person living in her town of Burlington, Wyoming (population 314).
While recovering from knee surgery, Parker, 65, started what she called “The Snowflake Project,” making the first 40 snowmen by painting on wooden cutouts. To date, she has made about 500 snowmen, which she has placed near the front doors of 142 houses in the city – and for people in neighboring towns who have heard about her work and requested them as well.
Some are four feet high and four feet wide. “A few are quite large,” she says. “If the family had eight children, I made individual snowmen and joined them all together.”
But luckily, she had help: a classroom of kindergarteners and 20 local 4-H members helped her paint. City graduates painted 18 snowflakes as part of her work.
Pauline Parker’s wooden snowmen in Wyoming.
Courtesy of Pauline Parker
“It brought our community together,” she says.
In the time since the delivery (which took three days!), Parker has enjoyed the feedback she has received from friends and neighbors.
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One family used their snowmen as a holiday card. “It makes me happy that people enjoy them,” she says. – It’s really fun.
Parker even launched a hunt for 20 snowmen that lasted throughout December. “You have to really look for some of them,” she says. People who find them all are invited to stop by her house for a prize – in the form of a chocolate snowman.
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Pauline Parker’s wooden snowmen in Wyoming.
Courtesy of Pauline Parker
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“The people in our community are wonderful people. And they’re just excited,” Parker says of the project. “I just love Christmas. It’s supposed to be a time of smiles and happiness and I think this has helped our community do that.”
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Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education