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Photo by John Eaton
Ice carvers create a sculpture on Main Street in downtown Wellsboro during the 2019 Wellsboro Winter Celebration.

On Saturday, Feb. 12 during Valentine’s Day weekend, seven different sculptures, three of them offering photo opportunities for children, teens and adults, will be carved from 27 blocks of ice weighing 4.05 tons on sidewalks in front of Main Street businesses in downtown Wellsboro.

The sculptures will stay right where they are carved until they literally melt away.

The public is invited to watch three master ice carvers at work and ask them questions. It’s free.

The day will begin at 8:30 a.m. in front of the Ginn and Vickery law offices at 99 Main Street with a dinosaur for children and the young at heart to sit on and have their pictures taken. The dinosaur will be created from 3,000 pounds of ice, measure six feet tall and nine feet long and feature a red heart.

In addition to the dinosaur, there will also be two interactive minions, each carved from 600 pounds of ice that will offer more photo opportunities for the public along with the love bug, a car made from 2,100 pounds of ice featuring a colorful design that people can “sit in” as their friends and family take their photos.

Jeffrey Meyers and Ken Diederich, both of Cleveland, Ohio, and Paul Gurule of West Reading, Pa., will demonstrate their carving skills by creating four ice masterpieces from 1,800-pounds of ice on Wellsboro sidewalks, including a bear, a deer, a dolphin and a penguin, each made from 450 pounds of ice.

The other Main Street businesses where the ice masterpiece demonstrations and photo op sculptures will be are: the Arcadia Theater, Hillstone Farms, the Deane Center for the Performing Arts, Oregon Hill Winery; Senior’s Creations and the Café 1905 window at Dunham’s Department Store.

“Because ice carving can be done in a relatively short period of time, people can stick around to watch a sculpture being created from start to finish,” said Aaron Costic, president of Elegant Ice Creations, Inc., Broadview Heights, Ohio. “It takes about an hour” to create a sculpture from 450 pounds of ice.”

The ice sculptures on Saturday along with a cross-country skiing mini-clinic for beginners and a snow tubing race on The Green and the Mt. Tom Challenge on Sunday, Feb. 13 are among this year’s Wellsboro Winter Celebration events.

At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Fellowship Hall on Walnut Street, one block from The Green, children ages 1 to 12 can drink hot chocolate and decorate a sugar cookie with frosting and colorful sprinkles and then eat it or take a prepackaged cookie, frosting and sprinkles with them and decorate their cookie at home. In addition, children will receive a Valentine’s Day card kit to take with them. The cookie, hot chocolate and kit are free.

For more information about other Wellsboro Winter Celebration, call the Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce at (570) 724-1926, email info@wellsboropa.com or visit www.wellsoboropa.com.

Diane Eaton
dianetn@ptd.net
(570) 724-3800