CORNISH — About 30 visitors of varied ages left their temporary marks at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park on Saturday by creating multicolored, sparkling snow angels and other creatures in the fresh powder.

Kelly Gadouas, the park’s education fellow, provided attendees with spray bottles of liquid water paint and biodegradable glitter for them to use to decorate their creations. The activity was inspired by Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ 1880 sculpture Amor Caritas, which depicts a golden angel holding a plaque that reads “amor caritas,” the Latin words for love and charity.

“I love that sculpture,” Gadouas said Saturday as she waited for another group to make colorful angels.

Gadouas, who lives in Cavendish, Vt., is an artist and teacher, who came to know and love the park when she taught at Cornish Elementary School about a decade ago.

“There’s so much inspiration here,” she said.

Gadouas said she normally would have artists sculpt in the snow, but Saturday’s post-storm powder was too fluffy.

Some attendees of the free event, which has been on hiatus since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were motivated to make shapes other than angels.

“We made a cat,” said 3-year-old Freddie Clark, of Windsor. His family has three cats and a dog at home, he said.

Freddie and his father Noel harvested some nearby tree branches to serve as whiskers for the purple and green snow feline, which Freddie named “Snow Cattie-Ho.”

Like the Clarks, Gadouas’ 9-year-old daughter, Bella, also took the snow angel project in a different direction. She made a wolf.

“I love wolves a lot,” Bella said, adding that she likes that they’re predators. “I just think that they’re cool.”

The event, which also included a scavenger hunt, gave families a relatively safe way to get outside and interact with others, said Stephanie Gattie, of Cornish, who attended with her husband, Marc, and their children Margot, 1, and Jack, almost 7.

Gattie said she likes having the park, which she called a “gem,” nearby. It’s a good spot for a summertime picnic or walk, she said.

Saturday’s scavenger hunt used poems to guide participants to different sculptures throughout the grounds. Gattie called it “art in a nutshell.”

The hunt was a winter version of the Saint-Gaudens Quest, which was designed, at least in part, by the late Gregory Schwarz, who worked at the park for 25 years. The longer version, which includes going into some of the park’s buildings, is available online on Vital Communities website, vitalcommunities.org/quest/the-saint-gaudens-quest/, and can be completed June-October.

On Saturday, Supervisory Park Ranger Kerstin Burlingame gave out junior ranger buttons to children who completed the scavenger hunt, which ended in front of a sculpture of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln: The Man, also is known as Standing Lincoln.

As part of an oath after she gave out the badges, Burlingame urged the young participants “to love my national parks and learn all you can.”

Editor’s note: The park is slated to host more winter programs, including winter disc golf on Feb. 26 and winter animal tracking on March 19. Both events start at 10 a.m. They are free, but registration is required. More information is online at: nps.gov/saga/planyourvisit/winter-programs.htm.

Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.

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