Snow sculpture contest winners announced

Tim Brody - Editor

The winners have been named and prizes have been awarded for a snow sculpture contest which recently took place in Sioux Lookout.

Inspired by a snow sculpture contest which took place in Lac Seul First Nation in January, Justin Bottle, who lives in Sioux Lookout and works in Lac Seul, shared, “A lot of people had fun doing it, so I figured, Sioux Lookout wasn’t doing anything and the pandemic has everybody staying inside, so I just wanted to get people outside to have some fun with their families.”

Partnering with the Sioux Lookout Chamber of Commerce, prizes were awarded for first, second and third place contest entrees.

First place was awarded to Lawrence, Lori and Kyle Durante for the large owl they constructed on Montello Place.

The Durante’s won $470 in cash, thanks to donations from Morgan Fuels, Bertha Trout, Leanne Singleton and Isabel Fiddler.

Lawrence Durante said he read about the contest Bottle and the Chamber were partnering together to put on in The Sioux Lookout Bulletin. “We read that and figured, well, if he’s going to have some sort of contest here, we’ve got lots of snow this year, so we figured we could try something like that.”

Durante said he and his family had a great time working on their snow sculpture, “We tried picking something not too difficult, but at the same time, something unique and something that would stand out.”

He said he and his family where quite surprised when they found out their snow sculpture had taken first place in the contest. 

Tanya Tekavcic, Jon Armstrong, Sarah Flowers, Holly Szumowski and Myriam Bernier won second place for the snow sculpture of a kayaker they constructed on Third Avenue.

They received a gift certificate from Giant Tiger and a dinner from Yellow Apron Kitchen, a local home-based business.

“I saw Justin’s post on Facebook, and I thought, what a great idea! We have so much snow, so why not? I contacted these four friends that I had gone on a kayak trip this summer and that’s where we got our design,” Tekavcic shared. 

She said creating the snow sculpture was a lot more work than she and her friends thought it would be, “Once we picked our design, we realized we were going to have to really pack it up, because we wanted to create a waterfall, so that took a bit of work… It was a real learning experience. None of us had ever really done anything like that before. It was fun! We’re going for gold next year,” she said, adding she and her friends were pleasantly surprised to learn they had won second place in the contest.

Third place in the contest was awarded to Jean Kim, Tayler Sorensen, Amanda Driscoll and Tamara Lubek for the deer they created on Montello Place.

They received a gift certificate from 

Chicken Chef.

Bottle said approximately 15 snow sculptures were entered in the contest.

“I think it went pretty well actually. I was surprised at the support that I got. I wasn’t thinking there were going to be that many entrees… but overall, it was a great success. It went really well. I’m glad the Chamber of Commerce stepped in to help me find second and third (prizes). I was just doing it for fun and I’m glad people stepped in and supported me and donated. It was awesome,” Bottle remarked, adding he would like to run the contest again next year.