CLARKS SUMMIT — Visitors to the Clarks Summit Ice Festival who saw many completed ice sculptures around town got to see even more sculptures as they gathered around the Citizens Savings Bank parking lot on Sunday. This time, they saw sculptures completed by amateur ice carvers as well as by professional carvers. The Abington Business & Professional Association held a local celebrity ice carving competition, in which professional ice sculptors were paired with well-known people in the community. Each team had two hours to make an ice carving to go with the festival’s theme of Star Wars.
Mark Crouthamel, owner of Sculpted Ice Works, supplied each of the four teams with 300 pounds of ice and equipment to make their carvings. He also emceed the event by announcing the names of both the local celebrities and the ice sculptors, mentioning each charity to which the celebrity planned to donate prize money.
“They are carving for their charity of choice,” he said.
Ryan Campbell opted to donate to the foundation of the Rotary Club of the Abingtons, of which he is the president. He finds that ice carving to be a change of pace from his career as an attorney at Howard, Rothenberg, & Associates.
“It’s fantastic,” he said. “Definitely different from my day job.”
Campbell was partnered with ice sculptor Chad Gasiorek, whose day job is teaching baking at Sussex County District School in Sparta, New Jersey. Together, they made a sculpture of an X-wing starfighter.
Ice sculptor Neil Trimper, of Sandyston, New Jersey, helped Megan Millo, of Ken Pollock Auto Group, make a carving of Star Wars’ main antagonist Darth Vader. He works at Sculpted Ice Works and always likes making sculptures for the ice festival each year.
“It’s a great event,” he said. “We’ve been doing it since it started. It’s great for the community.”
Trimper helped Millo with her charity, Wilkes Barre Association for the Blind.
Not following any certain Start Wars character, ice sculptor TJ Neary came up with his own alien riding a spacecraft. He was assisted by State Street Grill owner Tom Hill. Since he is a dog lover and owns a German shepherd named Nala, Hill chose Griffin Pond Animal Shelter as his charity.
“I’ve developed friendships with the guys from the Ice Works,” said Hill, who is a big fan of both the festival and Sculpted Ice Works.
Hill had the chance to chisel and fuse ice together while helping Neary with the carving.
WBRE/WYOU news anchor Nick Toma worked with ice carver Evan Hughes, of Olyphant, to sculpt an ice carving of Yoda using his Jedi powers to levitate rocks. Toma’s charity was the American Red Cross.
“I’ve done some stuff for them before,”he said. “And had some friends helped out (by American Red Cross) after a hurricane in Florida. I’ve also donated blood for them.”
After two hours of carving, chiseling and covering the sculptures with blankets to keep them from melting in the bright sun, visitors voted for their favorites. Toma’s and Hughes’ Yoda sculpture received the most votes while the X-wing starfighter and the alien on spacecraft were both tied for second. The Darth Vader sculpture took third place.
Speaking of Darth Vader, he and Han Solo’s friend Chewbacca walked around and greeted children at the ice festival. They visited the ice carving competition, in which they met the May family from Dunmore, consisting of 2-year-old Cecilia, 3-year-old Liam, 8-year-old Maggie and their parents Joe and Mari May. Liam, who donned his R2-D2 hat at the festival, has a lot of Star Wars costumes. Maggie has a costume of Princess Leia and Rey as they are both fans of Star Wars.
“The kids were excited for the theme,” said Mari.
Joe is also a Star Wars fan.
“I think it’s good,” he said about the theme. “All the kids and adults like it together.”
After watching the ice carving competition, the May family headed to the Clarks Summit Elementary School for the Ice Wars Comic Con.
