PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Folks driving along Academy Street in Presque Isle will notice Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital has a new addition to its campus, complete with a towering top hat and a supersized smile.
Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital decided to have some fun with the huge piles of snow, and last week recreated their popular giant snowman.
“We figured we have all this snow, we might as well have fun with it,” said hospital Communications Manager Karen Gonya on Feb. 18. “The maintenance team here at the hospital built it. We hadn’t done this for the last couple of years and decided to do it again.”
The hefty Frosty stands 28 feet tall, according to Gonya, and boasts a nose made from a traffic cone, 5-gallon bucket lids for eyes, mouth and buttons, and a modified 35-gallon trash barrel for a hat.
Work began on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Local businesses pitched in by donating time and heavy equipment to the project. Crews formed the snowman’s enormous pieces, dragging them into place with the help of a payloader. The finishing touch came Friday, when equipment operators maneuvered the decorated head and lifted it into place.
The project took maintenance staff about 20 hours to complete, Gonya said.
The sight has drawn a multitude of social media postings, and equipment tracks used to build the structure have become a well-worn path for viewers to see the snowman up close and take pictures.
On the hospital’s Facebook page, officials did remind people to be cautious when stopping by the side of the road as there have been some traffic jams.
“It’s just a fun thing to do,” Gonya said. “I’m glad people are enjoying it.”
Frosty stands tall on Sunday afternoon at the entrance to Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital in Presque Isle, with several onlookers stopping by to marvel and take photos. His bottom portion alone stands more than 7 feet tall, and with the top hat he reaches 28 feet high. (Paula Brewer)
