Skip to content

A dragon makes a family day debut

A family creates a massive detailed dragon, drawing in locals to check out the sight.
88684ferniefpSnowDragon.3-003
Aaron

Raised in Sparwood, Daniel and Aaron Kozler along with their father Scott had great memories of their yearly winter tradition of building sculptures and forts in the snow. As the boys grew up, their tradition slowly stopped, until now, when their father's ritual turned their yard into a detailed art display after their family got together for a day of fun and creativity, reviving customs of the past and creating a local marvel.

Daniel, now 24 lives in Sparwood with his wife Sheri and their kids and Aaron, 25  has spent years away, moving to Gagetown, New Brunswick,  and serving in the army in Afghanistan. After on tour for almost a year, and back in the base in Gagetown, Aaron made the trip to Sparwood and surprised his family for a visit.  "His visits generally aren't for too long, and can be pretty hectic sometimes, as he wants to see the many people that he grew up to know and love around here. So, with his visiting schedule down to about once a year at most, we decided to pick up the old family tradition and take a "family day" to build a snow dragon, a day to relax and, as Scott likes to call it 'recharge our batteries' and  take the hustle and bustle out of everyday life," says Sheri.

So out they went picking back up where they left off  years ago.  In a little over 6 hours sculpting, moving snow and painting, a massive dragon was born.  "We have had many people already stopping by our house to ask if they can take a picture. I'm sure that in the next few days we will be putting up a silly sign saying, 'Please don't feed the dragon. ' For us, everything is fun and games in our lives, and that's what keeps us young," says Sheri.

 The dragon, which is soon to get wings was  created out of the snow piles from the plows now sits at 20 ft long, and 5 ft high and amazes all those that pass by. The local wonder can be seen downtown Sparwood, until the snow melts of course