‘Travis Kelsleet’ and ‘Lord Coldemort’? JoCo city’s students add fun to this fleet
Snowplows in Olathe have been getting a little more festive as the city prepares for more winter weather. The annual snOlathe art contest recently had three young artists adding their work to the scoops on the front of the vehicles.
Chad Courtois, street maintenance superintendent for Olathe, said people have been painting the city’s plows for about 18 years, but it only became a competitive contest in 2020. Before that, various schools in Olathe would take turns painting a few plows each year.
Courtois likes seeing “the kids and the interaction. They’re getting to watch their plow drive by, and (drivers are) getting thumbs up when (the kids) see they’re out there plowing.”
The drivers enjoy the experience as much as the kids, Courtois said.
Olathe has 34 big plows, and Courtois estimates that 28 of them are painted. They keep the designs on the scoops year to year until the paint wears off. If there are a few years without heavy snow, the designs can hang around for a long time.
Most designs have been snow-related, but that’s not a rule. Previous winners have featured images of outer space, snowmen, handprints and smiley faces.
The contest is open to adults, as well as kids. The contest form simply has a template drawing of a snowplow in a head-on view with the scoop extended. Entrants draw their design, using a maximum of six colors, and send it in via the city’s website.
Laura Thomas, communications specialist for Olathe’s public works department, said she circulates the information on social media and sends it to all the school art teachers. This year’s winners are all elementary students: Katie Childs, Emi Miranda and Cassadee Gardner.
Courtois and other city employees judge the entries and select a winner.
Thomas said they take past designs into consideration when choosing a winner to get more of a variety of images on the plows.
Katie came to the street maintenance building to paint her design with a few family members and friends. They managed to outline the design in pencil and fill in the design with latex and enamel paint in about an hour and a half.
Thomas said some groups take up to three hours, depending on the design. The city provides all the paint and brushes.
After the paint is dry, city employees spray it with a clear coat to make it last longer.
In addition to getting to show off their art, winners also get a snOlathe goodie bag with a hat, bouncy ball, teddy bear and more.
Though some kids enter the contest along with their whole class, Katie sent in her entry independent from school. Amy Childs, Katie’s mom, said they heard about the contest on Facebook.
“Katie loves art, so we wanted to enter it,” Amy Childs said.
Though Katie said she likes drawing people and animals too, her design for the snow plow featured the word “snOlathe” along with several snowflakes.
“I just really like drawing. I thought it would be fun to see my picture on a snowplow,” said Katie, 10.
The city’s plows all have creative names. Katie’s design will be on the one named “Travis Kelsleet.” Other plows in the fleet include “Taylor Drift” and “Lord Coldemort.”
