Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

Getting to Know: Snow Sculptor Jackie Snow

Friday, January 24, 2014, By Kelly Homan Rodoski
Share
Parking attendant Jackie Snow expressed the feelings of everyone in the SU community with this recent sculpture and accompanying sign.

Parking attendant Jackie Snow expressed the feelings of everyone in the SU community with this recent sculpture and accompanying sign.

This winter’s “polar vortex” and bone-chilling temperatures have made the season a little harder to bear, but a drive through the Syracuse University campus’s South Gate will warm your heart and put a smile on your face.

It is there that Parking Services staff member Jackie Snow—a woman with the perfect name—turns the white stuff into something spectacular. Her most recent creation is a snow sculpture of a dog with a sign proclaiming it is “Dog Gone Cold.”

Snow works on one of her snow creationsl

Snow works on one of her snow creations

Snow looks to current events for ideas for her snow creations—previous themes have included the snowstorm named Nemo, the Winter Olympics and “Fat Lincoln,” created when Abraham Lincoln’s birthday fell on Fat Tuesday.

A late March burst of snow last year at her home in Cicero, with remnants brought to work in a bag, provided Snow with just enough to create four snowpeople—“The Final Four,” which also paid homage to the SU men’s basketball team’s spot in the NCAA’s Final Four. Pictures of that creation went viral last spring.

Snow began creating the sculptures when she started working at SU in 2007. She is not an artist by trade—“my only medium is snow,” she says—and her snow sculpting experience comes from making snowmen with her sons, Nick and Ryan, when they were young boys.

She made her first SU snowman outside the South Gate after the first snowfall that year. “Everyone went crazy,” she says. Her snow creations soon became something that people were looking for. “People will come through the gate and say, ‘Hey, where is the snowman? It is something that has just evolved, and people love it.”

This quartet rooted on the Syracuse men's basketball team in the 2013 NCAA Final Four.

This quartet rooted on the Syracuse men’s basketball team in the 2013 NCAA Final Four.

The snowmen have proved so popular that Snow has even gotten some assistance in creating them. “I have had people bring me snow in hand-held coolers, and bring clothes,” she says. At the gate, she has a drawer with rocks, sticks and felt to be used in her creations. There have only been a couple of times that the creations have not simply melted away but instead met an unnatural end. “I was finding body parts all the way up to the stop sign,” she says.

Snow describes herself as a “Jackie of all trades.” She has done a little bit of everything—service in the Navy, selling cars—before coming to SU. The boys that she and her husband, Mike, have are grown—Nick is a senior at St. John Fisher College in Rochester and Ryan, a senior at Cicero-North Syracuse High School, will attend SU in the fall.

But she still loves to play in the snow.

  • Author

Kelly Rodoski

  • Recent
  • June 30 Deadline Set for Fiscal 2023 Year End Business
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By News Staff
  • DPS Accepting Sign-Ups for R.A.D. Summer Session
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By Alex Haessig
  • Syracuse Stage Adds 2 Musicals to 50th Anniversary Season
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By Joanna Penalva
  • Supporting, Advocating for Trans Youth Will Help Them Thrive As Adults
    Friday, May 26, 2023, By Daryl Lovell
  • 2023-24 Parking Rates Announced
    Friday, May 26, 2023, By News Staff

More In Campus & Community

June 30 Deadline Set for Fiscal 2023 Year End Business

Cash Operations has set a deadline of 3:30 p.m. on Friday, June 30, to receive deposits at the Bowne Cash Operations office for credit in fiscal year 2023. Deposits should be made as early in the day as possible on…

DPS Accepting Sign-Ups for R.A.D. Summer Session

The Syracuse University Department of Public Safety (DPS) is currently accepting sign-ups for its R.A.D. summer session. R.A.D., which stands for Rape Aggression Defense, is a nationally known self-defense program. This women-only self-defense course is being offered exclusively to Syracuse…

Syracuse Stage Adds 2 Musicals to 50th Anniversary Season

Syracuse Stage announced two musicals that will complete the lineup for the organization’s 50th anniversary season. Audiences are immersed in the soulful music of Billie Holiday with Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Oct. 18 through Nov. 5. Closing…

2023-24 Parking Rates Announced

Syracuse University has set its parking rates for the 2023-24 academic year. The University’s rates, which align with those of peer institutions, provide funding for technology upgrades and capital improvements to parking lots and garages across campus. Employee rates for…

Lutheran Chaplain Announces Retirement

After 15 years of service as Lutheran Chaplain at Hendricks Chapel, Rev. Gail Riina has announced her retirement, effective at the end of July. Pastor Gail (as she is often known by students) served in numerous campus contexts throughout her…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.