DiMartino Ice has been carving ice sculptures for the “First Night” New Year’s Eve celebration in State College for 26 years.
Jared McAsliter is one of their carvers, and has been coming for 23 of those years, and has been carving the ice sculptures here since he was 14.
“These communities that we go to, anywhere from a day to four days, it feels like coming back home because we’ve doing it for so long,” McAlister, said.
Families say, the large ice carvings make this new year’s celebration unique from others across the area.
“I like the lion and the fish,” Connor Yates, 9 year old from State College, said.
“It’s definitely interesting, to kind of see a big block of ice, and not really know what it’s going to be until they cut off a specific piece and then all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh, OK, I see what that is,” David Rea, Connor’s Stepfather, said.
McAlister and the 9 ice carvers say each year you’ll see something you’ve never seen before.
“In the office season we try to come up with new designs based on things that we’ve seen as we travel, and just, maybe somebody comes up and says, “Hey have you ever done one of these before?” We kind of get the creative juices flowing,” McAlister, said.