Winter can be hard on everyone, and being stuck inside with nothing to do can give many winter blues. However, the City of La Porte Park and Recreation Department is working to help alleviate this and get people outside and having fun. Their solution – Winterfest.
Pam Carroll, Recreation Director for the City of La Porte Park and Recreation Department explained why the city puts on Winterfest every year.
“We want people to embrace winter, get outside, get involved, and be a part of it,” said Carroll. “People can just get out and be outside to get some fresh air for a change.”
Ice Sculpture Demonstration
Winterfest 2022 starts January 29 and runs until January 30 with many events and activities happening all around the city. The fest was kicked off on Friday with an ice sculpture demonstration. This event allowed residents of La Porte to watch artists carve masterful works of art out of ice. Taking place at the 618 Plaza on Lincolnway, the ice sculpture demonstration was a great way for artists to showcase their skills.
Ryan Frauhiger, a woodcarver by trade who has gotten into ice sculpting, is from Bluffton, Ind. but has sculpted many times in La Porte. This year, he decided to take his talents to Winterfest for the first time. The theme of his piece was sunflowers.
“The theme on this is sunflowers because this time of year it’s nice to remember that summer’s coming,” said Frauhiger. “That’ all there is to it, nothing deeper than that.”
After finishing his sunflower sculpture, Frauhiger began sculpting a snowman with leftover ice.
This incredible display of artistic expression attracted many La Porte residents as they browsed the sculptures and picked their favorites. La Porte resident Elzbieta Bildrback enjoyed looking at the sculptures.
“The sculpture of the eagle is beautiful, but my favorite is the plague doctor,” said Bildrback. “They are all beautiful.”
Looking forward to the rest of Winterfest, there will be seven events across the three days. One on Friday and Sunday, and five on Saturday. Saturday's events consist of an ice fishing derby, a snowball softball co-ed tournament, a free family yoga class, a snowman contest, and a glow-in-the-dark scavenger hunt. Sunday’s event is horse-drawn wagon rides.
Last year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city did not hold the snowball softball tournament or the horse-drawn wagon rides, but the City of La Porte Park and Recreation Department is excited to have them back.
“The most popular event of Winterfest would probably be the horse-drawn wagon rides,” said Carroll. “The year before we had people waiting in lines for the wagon ride. It was very popular.”
The City of La Porte is very excited to put on the snowman building contest this year.
“Last year we did a snowman contest, which we hadn’t done in many years because we never have snow, but we brought that about again this year because we have snow,” said Carroll.
To learn more about this year’s Winterfest, please visit https://www.laporteparkandrec.com/winterfest.
To learn more about the City of La Porte Park and Recreation Department, please visit https://laporteparkandrec.com/.