Snowmen and an army of their builders invaded TD Place in Ottawa on March. 9 in an attempt to break a Guinness World Record for the second time.
A total of 1,500 people gathered under perfect weather conditions to try and break the record. The Japanese city of Liyama took the record from Ottawa last year with 2,036 snowmen. In Ottawa, around 1 p.m. kids, parents and snow enthusiasts rushed the field, lunging at snow and furiously rolling snow into snowmen. It wasn’t long after the event bell rang that a white army appeared on the field.
After an hour of frenzied rolling, decorating and building, the record was broken. A total of 2,069 snowmen qualified for the record. Ottawa beat the Japanese record by 33 snowmen.
“I think it’s cool to participate in a Guinness World Record. I always see the books at the library, and now, I’m part of it,” said Justa Laroche as she was rolling snow.
“This, is Canadianism,” said Justa’s mother as she and her daughters crafted their snowman.
Participants had one hour to build snowmen that were three feet tall, had two eyes, two arms and a nose to be considered for the record. Other than those four requirements, creativity was up to the builders.
“The warm weather will help this year. Last year, the snow was like sand,” said Adrian Laney who came with his two sons, Alex and Sasha.
The trio was planning to build 10 snowmen. They had brought colourful foam sticks for arms and homemade Styrofoam balls that they had hand-decorated. Dollarama was the source of their creativeness.
Some people had Mrs. Potato accessories, scarves, hats, even coats and lots of carrots. All of the clothes and accessories used to decorate were donated to the Salvation Army.
“The most bizarre thing we brought is dog kibble,” said Chris McGinn, who was participating in the challenge for the second time.
Officials measured all the snowmen after the hour was up. Walking through the rows of snowmen, they held rulers up to each snowmen to make sure it was up to code.
The event was promoting mental health awareness. Representatives from Do It For Daren, or DIFD, Causeway, Partners for Mental Health, Dave Smith Youth Treatment Foundation, Amethyst Women’s Addiction Centre and the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health all attended.
The money raised from the snowman contest will be donated to organizations supporting mental health in the capital. Last year, $12,000 was raised for mental health.