Three days before the opening of the ice park and the multi block carving competition begins. The boot campers are all over, still carving blocks of ice for the park. Heather Brice and her crew were carving into ice the logos of the sponsors on the logo wall of the main stage where the reward ceremonies will take place. David Smith and his crew were carving signs in front of the games area. Seanna and AJ were putting up lights above one of the slides. After the recent snows, all the carvings will have to be blown off and cleaned. The park will soon be ready to delight people of all ages. I am going to try to interview some of the boot campers but will have to wait until everyone is less busy and the park is ready. I did talk for a few minutes with AJ during lunch today. He is originally from New Orleans but moved to Fairbanks in 2019 with his scaffolding business. He helps at Ice Alaska harvesting ice, (400 blocks this year), working security, and anything else people need him to do. AJ is such a nice guy and will do everything to help. At dinner I chatted for a few minutes with Seanna. She lives in West Virginia and is here for her second visit. The first time she came to Fairbanks she wanted to try her hand at ice carving, having done a bit of it at home. She said she kept hearing about the spectacular ice here, the “arctic diamonds.” This is her second visit to Fairbanks and this time she is helping with the heavy equipment. She admitted how much she likes rocks and always wanted to play with the big machines that dig holes, the earth movers. She is now licensed to drive some of this heavy equipment and is being put to use driving the skid steers. Funny note-did you know people play basketball in skid steers? Seanna helps people learn how. She is wonderful, energetic, friendly and a great helper here. All the boot camper volunteers are wonderful people who donate their time and energy to make the World Ice Carving Championships and Ice park the grand event it is.