SOUTH BEND, Ind. — There’s so much snow and ice here in Michiana that some students at Notre Dame are getting creative with it.
They built a small but remarkably realistic chapel out of ice and Monday night; there’s even a mass planned for the tiny venue.
When you walk on the campus of Notre Dame, you’ll notice plenty of classic architecture. But two new buildings have had students, staff and campus visitors stopping and staring.
While not everyone has been the biggest fan of the recent snow and ice, Notre Dame sophomore Liam Devine sure is. The Florida native got to work a few weeks ago on an elaborate igloo, one that took the biology student more than 100 hours to build.
“It kind of becomes addicting, you’re making blocks, and putting it on there and you see it go up bit by bit, I’ve really enjoyed it a lot, so I kept putting more and more time into it and I never thought I was going to be able to get a roof on it,” said Devine.
Devine and his pals weren’t even close to done. Inspired by the igloo, the fellows got to work building an ice chapel, featuring a crucifix made by one of the RAs.
“He has a wood carving kit that he bought because he wanted to learn how to carve some wood, he’d never done it before, never used the kit, and his first time ever sculpting or carving anything was making this huge ice crucifix and he got some great details on there, you can see the fingers and everything,” said Devine.
Word around campus spread fast of St. Olaf’s chapel, as Devine dubbed it. It will even host a mass, celebrated by Reverend Pete McCormick, or ‘Father Pete’, as he’s belovedly known by those in the Notre Dame community.
“It’s going to be amazing and I’m hoping with his name and his love for the school, we’re going to get a lot more people out tonight, maybe we can get a couple hundred people out here tonight, it would be wonderful,” said Notre Dame sophomore Carter moses.
For Devine though, the process with both the igloo and the ice chapel have been worth the long hours, back pain, and even a little bit of frostbite in his fingers.
“My favorite part of this whole thing has been one, getting to the guys in my dorm a lot better and getting to spend time with them, and two, the hundreds of people that stop by and ask for a tour and pictures and how it happened and why, just getting to talk to them, I’ve met tons of people all through an igloo,” said Devine.
