Students Build Metal Snowpeople For Overly's County Christmas

WESTMORELAND COUNTY (KDKA) -- Overly's Country Christmas opens for the season Friday night at Westmoreland Fairgrounds. This year, it will feature three towering snowmen -- or rather, snowpeople.

Time to string up the lights. Overly's Country Christmas is back. And now, the towering "snowman" who greeted so many families last year, has a "family" of his own. A "wife" and "son" have been added.

"About a year and a half ago, I went to Westmoreland County Community College (WCCC) and saw a metal sculpure in their lobby," said Overly's executive director, Stephanie Tomasic. "And that inspired us to ask what we could do together, to create something for Christmas Village."

She says it benefits Overly's and the students as well.

"I think one of the best parts of this snowman project is the ability of the students to learn from it," she said.

The project took shape at WCCC's Advanced Technology Center in Mount Pleasant. Instructor Dale Glessner says students decided to make ribs from aluminum tubes. And it worked.

"They designed it. They did all the measurements," he said. "We just kind of stood back and made sure it was going to be structurally sound, and everything they were doing in their heads would work out. They did a really good job. Everything's on them."

Student Brandon Tantlinger says it's more rewarding than a working on a project for a grade.

"It makes me feel good, because then I know it's something that's actually going to be there for a long time," he said. "I can come back in 20 years and go see it and show people, and say I worked on this."

Student Allison Petroff remembers passing through the park when she was a little girl.

"When you're young it's like, oh the lights are cute. Look at all the decorations," she said. "And now I'm like, oh that's a really tall snowman that I helped out with. So, it's cool. It's really cool."

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