BISMARCK, N.D.-
Do you love making snow angels?
Then the people of Bismarck, N.D., want you to drop by Dec. 26 at the state Capitol to help them reclaim a snow angel record.
The city lost the title of snow angel capital of the world to a Michigan community earlier this year.
The record for flailing arms and legs in snow has spurred some friendly trash-talking between organizers in Bismarck and the defending champion–Houghton, Mich.
“It’s rightfully ours,” said Marilyn Snyder, curator of education for the Historical Society of North Dakota, which organized North Dakota’s 2002 record-setting event. “We set the record and established the record. The record is ours.”
Bismarck created the Guinness Book of World Records category when 1,791 people waived their arms and legs in the snow at the state Capitol more than four years ago.
The city retained the record despite the efforts of the residents of Syracuse, N.Y., who failed in 2004 and 2005 year to top it.
But residents of Houghton shattered the record on Feb. 10–with 3,783 snow angel makers–at Michigan Technological University’s Sherman Field. Houghton also broke two other records in February–by rolling a snowball with a diameter of 6.77 feet, and with a snowball fight involving 4,000 people, said Travis Pierce, an organizer of the event in Michigan.
The Guinness Book of World Records certified the snow angel record in May, Pierce said.
Snyder vows Houghton’s world record for the most people making snow angels will be short-lived. She said organizers in Bismarck are calling on 10,000 people to show up at the Capitol the day after Christmas.
“It’s the day after Christmas and one of the biggest shopping days, so tons of people will be in town,” Snyder said.
Snyder said the idea is to smash the record and put it out of reach.
“We need 10,000 people so nobody can take it away from us again,” she said. “Any other town is really going to be hard pressed to come up with that many people.”
Snyder said she’s been contacted by people from other states–and countries–who say they will come to Bismarck to help break the record.
“We wish them luck, but I don’t think they stand a chance,” Pierce said of Bismarck’s goal.
“If they break it–and that’s a pretty big if–the ball would be in our court and the citizens of Houghton would try to re-establish our dominance,” said Paul Judge, a Michigan Tech biochemistry major who helped organize February’s record-breaking attempt.
Snyder said there should be plenty of snow on the ground in Bismarck on the day of the attempt.
“The Farmer’s Almanac is calling for snow,” Snyder said. And her mother, 86-year-old Gladys Berger of Beach, has been praying for snow with her prayer group, she said.
The prayer group, made up mostly of elderly residents, also is praying for the snow angel record to come back to North Dakota, Snyder said.
“I suppose when you start bringing in divine powers–that kicks it up a notch,” Judge said. “God doesn’t have favorites but he gives us more snow.”
Pierce said the snow angel record has been a “community builder for us.”
“I think it’s great and a really neat opportunity for two cities that are pretty much out in the middle of nowhere to have this kind of competition,” he said.
