It’s the 100th Winter Carnival! To celebrate, we asked alumni to look back. We asked “What is your favorite Winter Carnival memory?” Here is what they had to say:
My favorite memory is the way campus felt … feels … during Carnival. The chemistry and the physics and the engineering of the people and the structures changed, and I think we saw each other differently those few days each winter. It was exhilarating to simply be part of it, to be involved in whatever it was going to be, to help create — a statue or a team or a skit. Who can’t appreciate the act of stepping through a construction zone of a statue on Wednesday afternoon and finding there a completed work of art Thursday morning?
—Brenda (Polk) Garland, B.S. Scientific and Technical Communication 1999
Working on the BC Comic Strip sculpture in 1982 with my future husband (Glen Miller, Sno House, BSME 1984). It collapsed and everyone left but we stayed and rebuilt it through the night.
—Cindi Anderson, Good Intentions, B.S. Electrical Engineering 1985
Meeting my future husband for the first time the All Nighter of my freshmen year. Married 25 years as of this summer.
—Debra (Gustavson) Switzer, 1997
I was part of a group for first year commuter students and we did a statue in the overnight division. I wanted to really experience Winter Carnival so I hauled buckets of water to our statue site from a tap in the first floor of the EERC building, fueled by ghost pepper hot chocolate. By my second year I was writing for the LODE and covered Winter Carnival in that capacity for the next few years before graduating to cover Winter Carnival for the Daily Mining Gazette, so I was around the statues and rinks for a number of years and always enjoyed it but I feel like that first year was the only time that I got to do it for the sake of doing it.
—Jon Jaehnig, B.S. Scientific and Technical Communication 2011
“Getting pancakes in Fisher Hall during the All-Nighter. Great time to warm up, and share the Winter Carnival spirit with friends.”
—Andy Van Dyke, B.S. Forestry 2011
“I honestly just remember enjoying some time off from class and walking around campus during carnival. It was a great atmosphere. Also, someone built a giant (over a story tall) toilet statue in front of DHH and after judging my friend put on some crampons and climbed it.”
—Jackie Jiran, B.S. Civil Engineering 1996
“Statue building for Delta Zeta will always be a fond memory of Winter Carnival. I recall getting clean, fresh snow from our garage roof when we lived at 1111 College Avenue and then jumping off the roof into the pile of snow with a bunch of sisters. We successfully captured the moment in mid-air with our 35mm film camera – not an easy feat.”
—Kristin Kolodge, B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1995
“One of my best memories is building a snow statue my freshman year in front of Wads Hall between the Cafeteria and what was the Student Health Clinic (I think there is a nice plaza there now). Our statue was “Working in a Snow Mine,” a play on words from the hit song by Devo, “Working in a Coal Mine”. Even now when I hear that song, I think of that snow statue.”
—Scott McBain, B.S. Civil Engineering 1986
“My favorite memory of Winter Carnival was my last year at Tech and I was the Stage Revue chair for the Blue Key Society. Leading a small, but dedicated committee to wrangle many student organizations, fraternities, and sororities and facilitating an incredibly entertaining night of fun for the community around the theme of “Games We Know Captured in the Snow.” My parents, aunt, and uncle even came up from IL to support and check out the festivities!”
—Jenna Joestgen, B.S. in Biomedical Engineering 2010
“My wife and I got engaged while snowshoeing out at McLains during winter carnival 2014 while visiting as alumni.”
—Dan Madrid, B.S. Computer Networking & Systems Administration 2010
