Great Barrington — When the next storm hits town, if you encounter a plow emblazoned with the name “Mike Icen” or “Sir Plowsalot,” you can thank the fifth and sixth grade students at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School for the word play. The practice of naming snow plows has become a nationwide trend, meant to honor the hard work of winter road crews. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) announced the statewide winners of its contest a couple of weeks ago. When Carole Aberdale, fifth grade science and math teacher at Du Bois Middle School, heard about that contest, she had an idea. Her husband Joe Aberdale is superintendent of Great Barrington’s Department of Public Works (DPW), and they thought it would be great to start a local contest, so kids here could see names they invented displayed on the sides of snowplows.
“Carole was the cheerleader of this project and did all of the legwork to get it up and running,” said fellow teacher Kimberly Cormier, a sixth grade ELA teacher. The DPW came to the school and dropped two snowplows off in the parking lot. The entire fifth and sixth grade, comprising over 160 students, then set to work thinking of names. “They took it very seriously,” said Cormier, recounting how the students worked to come up with names that had something to do with snow. Each small homeroom class worked together. “It was great to see them just start shooting out names,” Cormier remarked. She put a handful of names up on the board, and then the class voted. “So it was all their idea… definitely a collective effort.”
After each class submitted a contender, Principal Jake McCandless and Assistant Principal Ellen Rizzo chose the winning names. “Sir Plowsalot” was the fifth grade winner, with the sixth grade responsible for the play on the famous heavyweight boxer. Then the kids went outside and decorated the plows. Joe Aberdale and Stephen Larkin, both from the DPW, came in and announced the winning names on December 13 and also talked to the kids about what the snow plows do and the science behind it.
Cormier said the students loved the presentation. Aberdale and Larkin talked about different treatments for the roads, because it is not always just a matter of removing snow from the roads, but treating them for ice, Cormier relayed. They also learned about some interesting new treatment options the town is employing in an effort to reduce the amount of salt used throughout the winter: namely, beet juice. “It was pretty interesting to hear about how that breaks down the ice. The kids were really, really into it.” (One Great Barrington resident who walked her dog after the road was treated this week noticed a smell like soy sauce, which apparently is due to the sugars in the beet juice fermenting.)
After the event, Cormier reported, a couple of students came in excited to have seen “their” plows treating the roads, with a magnetic sign on the side bearing the name. “It was really a good way to bridge the town and the school,” Cormier thought, and she said the school will make the contest a yearly event. “We wanted to try it small this year with just two [plows] to see how it would go. But it was a huge, huge hit, so we’ll do it again next year for sure.”
