As the 96th annual Winter Carnival approaches, the Dartmouth community eagerly awaits the completion of the Carnival's unfinished centerpiece, the snow sculpture.
The sculpture, which students worked on through the night Wednesday, will depict comic book characters Calvin and Hobbes sledding down a giant "D" adorned with an Olympic torch. The torch commemorates past and present Dartmouth students competing in this winter's Olympic games, sculpture builders said. Among the Dartmouth Olympians competing are Kaylin Richardson, who deferred her acceptance in the class of 2009 to train, Scott Macartney '01, and Libby Ludlow '06, all members of the United States alpine ski team.
The Opening Ceremony for the four day celebration that will feature different events and activities will take play on the Green at 7 p.m. Thursday night.
College President James Wright will be joined by various student organizers to unveil the snow sculpture, which has been a cause for concern to many on campus because of the unseasonably warm weather.
"We haven't had a good turnout of volunteers this year between the lack of snow and this weather. A lot of students haven't wanted to get involved," Chris Polashenski '07 said.
Despite the poor showing and poor response to posters asking for assistance in building the structure, a small group of students have volunteered to finish the snow sculpture.
"It's my birthday today and this seems more fun than studying for my midterm tomorrow, so I want to be a part of Winter Carnival and work with all these cool people," David Nutt '09 said.
Sculpture organizers sent a blitz to the campus Wednesday night in search of help, and even promised pizza from Everything But Anchovies to all volunteers.
"I have relatively little work tonight so I felt that if I didn't help, Winter Carnival may not turn out the way I hoped," Zack Zehner '09 said.
This year's sculpture is not the first that required students to work through the night. Some volunteers recalled that the 2004 sculpture depicting Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat required an all-nighter as well.
"We'll finish this by seven in the morning, working straight just like we did last year and then we will head to Lou's for breakfast," Polashenski said. "It's a tradition."
