PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Many in the community may have fond memories of the gigantic snowmen that have at times been built on the front lawn of Northern Light AR Gould Hospital in Presque Isle. The hospital is happy to bring back that tradition this year.
“This was such a fun, morale-boosting project for our employees, patients, and the community in the past,” explains Dr. Jay Reynolds, hospital president. “We enjoyed doing it, and we loved seeing all the folks stopping to take photos with our giant snowman.”
The snowman project began years ago as part of the hospital’s annual Winter Carnival activities. It transitioned over time from a competition between departments to one, giant snowman built by the hospital’s facilities team. In recent years both the challenges related to COVID as well as some years of low snow fall amounts prevented the hospital from snowman building efforts.
“We wanted to build an entire snowman family last winter, but the weather just didn’t cooperate,” says Reynolds. “Thanks to the two recent snowstorms, we were back in business this year. In homage to the fact that 80 percent of our workforce at AR Gould are women and about 56 percent of our patients are, we decided to build a snowwoman this year instead of a snowman.”
The snowwoman is named Carrie, in honor of a staff member in the hospital’s facilities department. While the intent had been to have her be 28 feet tall like the ones in the past, some challenges with the weather and snowpack resulted in the middle “ball” of snow to break apart.
“Our facilities team didn’t give up though,” says Reynolds. “They made it work, carving out and shaping the bottom mound to become two. She is still an impressive 17 feet tall.”
To complete her, the team used a wind sock for the nose; lids to five-gallon buckets for the eyes, mouth and buttons; lashes for a car headlight for her lashes; a 35-gallon garbage can for her hat (painted with cross on it as a throwback to old fashioned nursing hats); tubing and a vent cover for a stethoscope; and piping and a seat cushion for an IV pole. Solar lights were also used, so she will be lit up at night!
While the effort was led by the hospital’s facilities team, Reynolds notes that they couldn’t have done it without the assistance of Powers Roofing and Caron’s Lawn and Property Maintenance who both provided invaluable support.
While the hospital welcomes community members to stop by to see “Carrie” and take photos, they remind everyone to be cautious of traffic on Academy Street as well as the entrance to the hospital’s Emergency Department when they are doing so.
