Behind the Scene at Winter Carn

photo by Brian Mann of NCPR 

When Knut asked me to write an article about winter carnival (I have been a judge for the parade for the last five years), I thought I would write about the hearty folks that braved the very cold elements (30-50 below zero Fahrenheit with wind chill) to participate in or to watch the parade.

Instead, what I decided to write about is the little bit that I know of what goes on behind the scenes to make the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival (SLWC) happen. I certainly never thought about this until my partner, Jeff, chaired the Winter Carnival committee from 2010-2013, and boy, was I astounded. From about mid-December to mid-February, I hardly ever saw Jeff, as he was constantly away from the house going to Winter Carnival meetings, running down to Albany to pick the cartoon character costumes, checking in on the construction of the ice palace, soliciting ads and putting together the program book, securing sponsors, checking in on Winter Carnival headquarters. And when the carnival was happening, he was gone to the very many events offered daily for over a week. He certainly was not the only one putting in those kinds of hours to pull the carnival together. The other day one volunteer told me that his family did not recognize him anymore, and that even the dog started growling at him; he was kidding – sort of.

Jeff estimates that there are several hundred volunteers that participate in Winter Carnival and that does not include the people who go to great efforts to do things like putting on the rotary show or constructing amazing floats and routines for the parade (PSC won this year and I promise I was unbiased!). The Ice Palace alone requires the efforts of around 70 people each year. For every event, there are around 20 volunteers behind the scenes who make it happen.

The SLWC has been ranked in the top 10 Winter Carnivals in the world, and that includes competing with Winter Carnivals who have budgets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and hire professionals to build their ice castle; SLWC does it all by fundraising and volunteers. Speaking of the ice palace – what an amazing feat. Every block is hand cut, pulled out of the lake, stacked, and mortared (with slush). Ice sculptures are done by a volunteer with a chainsaw. Other volunteers bring the Ice Palace Workers warm food and drink as they work well into the night.

Then there is the expense of the carnival, which is significant. Between paying for insurance, renting cartoon costumes, paying for two large and one smaller fireworks shows, hiring bands for the parade (this year they played in the Town Hall only, it was too cold for the instruments!), and that’s just to mention a few. So, there are many volunteers who raise funds. The biggest fund raiser is the selling of the Winter Carnival buttons; I am sure in large part due to Gary Trudeau, who very generously donates his art work. I don’t think any other carnival has a world famous cartoonist designing their buttons and posters! And there are the very many businesses and individuals who contribute monetarily to the SLWC. It is truly astounding that such a small community can pull off such a great Carnival; it speaks volumes for the type of community we have. It is no wonder that people who come here to visit or to get an education end up staying; it is pretty hard to find a better community than ours.

photo by Brian Mann of NCPR