Boston University alumni and their friends and family chiseled away on large ice blocks Saturday at Winterfest 2009, creating frozen sculptures ranging from Rhett angrily chasing after Baldwin, the Boston College eagle, to am icy replica of Super Grover.
Ice sculpting was one of many family-oriented activities at BU’s fourth annual alumni weekend hosted by BU Alumni, where about 50 spectators watched about 20 sculptors create their ice masterpieces. Besides the ice-sculpting competition, the weekend included activities like yoga and hip-hop classes, a cooking demonstration, a men’s Terrier hockey game Saturday and a basketball double- header Sunday.
There were activities for both adults and children, Winterfest staff member Lindsay Corrigan said.
‘It’s a family-centered weekend,’ Corrigan said.
The eight ice sculpting teams first met upstairs in the Fitness and Recreation Center to sketch out their ideas for the competition, which ranged from the mystical creatures to the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from ‘Ghost Busters.’
Lauren Kestel, a speech-pathology graduate student, said neither she nor her teammates had any experience carving ice before. Ice sculpting teams had to sign up in advance and each team had to pay $15.
‘We’re all amateurs,’ Kestel said. ‘We have absolutely no idea how to do this.’
Kestel’s team debated whether to carve a dinosaur or a unicorn. Kestel said she was so excited to participate in the ice sculpting that she sacrificed her studying for the day.
‘I’m skipping studying for exams to do this,’ Kestel said.
Another ice sculpting group, headed by BU School of Social Work 2008 alumnus John Douglas, deliberated between many options, including a fairy and Bugs Bunny. They ultimately settled on Super Grover.
‘How often do you get to ice sculpt?’ Douglas said. ‘We’re hoping they let us use a chainsaw, but we heard a rumor they leave that to the professionals.’
A professional ice sculptor, who was hired to oversee the activity, made rough outlines of each sketch in the ice with his chainsaw, while spectators watched flying large ice chunks crash to the ground. At one point, Douglas convinced the man to let him take over the chainsaw.
The other sculptures included a robot, an ice cream cone, Poseidon on his throne and a ‘Viking kitten.”
While some were sculpting, nearly 60 alumni and friends attended a cooking demonstration on the first floor of the Fuller Building led by French Chef Raymond Ost from Sandrine’s Bistro in Cambridge.
Ost guided the guests through a ‘crash course’ on mussels, madeleines with pastry cream and duck p’acirc;t’eacute;. An angled mirror above him allowed the audience to watch his every move.
‘Not too much salt,’ Ost said, pouring an entire hand’s worth of salt into each of the three pots before him.
Audience members laughed when Ost poured a full bottle of wine into each large pot of mussels, and then went back and poured out another three. Ost cooked about 700 mussels for the attendees.
Megan Lichty, a friend of an alumnus, said her children would have preferred peanut butter and jelly, but tried everything anyway.
‘My 8-year-old daughter actually liked the p’acirc;t’eacute;,’ Lichty said. ‘I’m going to keep what it is a mystery as long as possible.’
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