A Long Island Family is Trying to Make This Snowman Last Until Spring

Next time you clear your driveway after a blizzard, consider sending a shovelful of snow to the Fregoe family of Massapequa Park, Long Island.

The clan made headlines in the spring of 2015 after word got out that they were collecting “snownations” to keep their massive 10-foot snowman from melting. This winter, Newsday reports that the Fregoes have built yet another mammoth ice figure. Once again, they’re soliciting the public to bring them buckets of the white stuff to keep their 14-and-a-half-foot tall creation standing tall until spring.

Thanks to social media, the Fregoes have had no trouble transforming their odd request into a reality. Last year, Mike Fregoe and his two daughters created a “Save the Snowman” Facebook page urging people to contribute snow. Their online efforts garnered icy offerings from across Long Island, as well as a special shipment from Vermont. The snowman shrank as the weather turned warm, but the Fregoes padded its frame with the extra precipitation. 

The snowman finally melted in late April. Fregoe kept a chunk of it in his freezer, intending to rebuild the popular local attraction the following winter. Once the weather cooled down, Facebook users started asking Fregoe if he planned to make another towering Frosty. After a blizzard hit the Mid-Atlantic several weeks ago, Fregoe built a new snowman. According to Facebook, the snowman is still intact, and continues to grow in size as snownations pour in.

CBS New York reports that the family hopes the new snowman will last even longer than last year's colossal labor of love. Since taking care of the sculpture is cold, time-consuming, and expensive work, they recently created "I Helped Save the Snowman" T-shirts. Snow contributors can purchase the shirts online to help the Fregoes raise money for new shovels, rain gear, and umbrellas. Twenty percent of the proceeds will go to a donation fund for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  

While the Fregoes' snowman is impressive, it has over a hundred feet (and countless snownations) to go before it surpasses the world's largest snowwoman, an incredible 122-foot figure named Olympia that was built in Bethel, Maine in 2008. She boasted eyelashes made from old skis, red tire "lips," and cascading blonde locks made of rope. No word, though, on whether she lasted until summer—a feat that the Fregoes seem determined to accomplish with their snowman this year.

[h/t Newsday]