It was an early-autumn hurricane, not a winter storm, that toppled more than 200 trees in one day on the Governor’s School for Agriculture campus last September. Some of those fallen trees now have been given new life as festive winter decorations.
The Education Center at John de la Howe opened its door to the community in late January for its first workshop of the new year to craft snowman decorations from wood salvaged after the devastation of Hurricane Helene. The project was designed to commemorate the spirit of community that followed the horrific storm, as community members banded together in the days and weeks after Helene to clean up, make repairs and rebuild.
“We had a wonderful turnout in January for our snowman building workshop,” said Kinsley Miller, Director of Outreach here at the Governor’s School for Agriculture. “The wood used to build the snowmen was from downed trees on our property and was cut into the pieces by students in our horticulture and forestry classes.”
Each snowman was created from three wooden discs carefully selected each workshop participant, who then connected the discs with metal brackets. A few colorful splashes of paint – including an orange swoosh for the traditional carrot nose – and strips of cloth fashioned into scarves completed the look for each patron’s wooden snowman.
The Education Center at John de la Howe presents a number of community workshops each year at our picturesque wilderness classroom, welcoming folks to take the scenic drive to the lake’s edge of our 1,310-acre campus. For more information on upcoming community workshops, keep an eye on the Education Center’s Facebook page and our website.
