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Rockford Park District doesn t want you to wear your heart on your sleeve. They want you to hang it on a tree! It s part of their 2021 Winter Flurry initiative called We Love Our Parks. That s when kids (and their families and friends) create colorful stained-glass hearts and hang them on designated trees throughout the city.
Credit Rockford Park Distric
Laura Gibbs-Green is the communications manager for the park district. She said they are distributing free kits throughout the community and that the kits are a great way for families to create art, get outside and have fun. We give you all the supplies, she said, everything you need in a kit. We have 1,000 kits.
The sculptures were awarded points for creativity, technique and message.
And then, the winners were announced.
The Band of Misfit Boys, including Keith Plimi, Dan Berry and Drake Perez, are the winners of the State of Illinois Champions and the People’s Choice Awards for their sculpture “Hooty and the Blowfish.” The team will advance to the 2022 U.S. Nationals Snow Sculpting Competition in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Team Quatcschmen, consisting of Peter Hermann, Jack Gerard and Jacob Bailey, took second for their sculpture “Well Done, John,” a tribute to former Rockford alderman and Rockford Park District employee John Beck, who died in April.
Snow Sculpting Competition Starts Wednesday At Sinnissippi Park
Looking outside, I can see that the problematic weather that pushed back this year s Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition a week (the weather interfered with snow-making equipment) is quite obviously gone.
The conditions this morning, snowing like crazy and still in a winter storm warning, are perfect to get things going at Sinnissippi Park, and that s exactly what s happening.
For those who keep track of these things, the Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition is celebrating its 35th annual appearance here in Rockford. As someone who s been to nearly every single competition since the event s inception (except for the very few times that Mother Nature wouldn t cooperate), I can tell you that it s another outstanding Rockford event.