Cold-hearted vandals may have trashed snow sculptor Laurence Rooney’s latest creation, but they haven’t put a nick in his resolve.
Rooney and his wife Barb and family and friends had spent more than 50 hours crafting his latest sculpture this winter in front of their Parkland Beach home on the northwest end of Gull Lake.
But before he could put the finishing touches on his nearly four-metre masterpiece, someone pulled the head off.
A photo of Rooney, clad in shorts despite the -29C temperature, working on his latest creation ran in the Advocate’s Jan. 8 edition.
Rooney discovered the damage on Friday as he was heading out to Ponoka’s Olympic torch run. He figures the damage was probably done the night before.
The giant statue would not have been easy to wreck.
Built of large chunks of ice he had frozen in garbage cans and other containers, the statue was built to last.
“We had the basic shape of it. We were just starting to flesh it out to what we were going to make, and then it disappeared.
“The piece they pulled off the other day, it probably weighed 200 pounds,” he said.
“There was a chunk on the road that probably weighed 40 pounds.”
Someone likely wrapped a rope or chain around the head of the statue and pulled it off with a truck. It’s the third time in the last few years that vandals have struck.
Rooney said it’s too late to rebuild his creation this year. It will be back next year, he vows. That’s why he’s coy about what it was going to be.
He wants to recreate it next year and doesn’t want to give the surprise away.
The Rooneys have been turning snow into works of whimsy since 1995.
Last year, an alien named Fub amused the locals.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com