School life / One Vermont winter, November 2021 to the thaw
Schoolchildren Named the Snowplows. One Planned to Introduce His Cat.
Vermont and Minnesota let students name state snowplows. The results include Luke Snow Walker, Plow-a-Tron 6000 and Blizzo, and one fourth grader with a plan for winter.
In 2021 the Vermont Agency of Transportation let students across the state name its snowplows, an idea borrowed from Scotland. In November, WCAX reported, the trucks visited the schools so the children could meet them and their drivers.
At Rutland Intermediate School, a fifth-grade class came up with Luke Snow Walker, and it won the schoolwide vote. The driver who would be at the wheel that winter told the station she was a Star Wars fan already, and that she'd been bragging about the name.
A fourth grader explained what he would do this winter. "Every time I will see that, I will just hold up one of my cats and say, 'Look kitty, there's the snowplow we named.'"
That is the whole relationship between a child and public infrastructure, in one sentence. The plow clears the road. The cat must be informed.
Around the state, students also gave the fleet Snow Day Stopper, Green Mountain Plower, Plow-a-Tron 6000, Ice Claw, Glacier and Ice Ice Baby. One group named its truck Dorito and gave the driver a bag of the chips. A VTrans official said the point was for children to adopt the drivers and trucks that get them to school safely in winter.
Minnesota has a contest too. In December 2022, a class of 33 sixth graders at Osseo Middle School, studying how state government works, including road maintenance, voted to submit "Blizzo," combining a famous Minnesotan with snow. Their runner-up was "Plow Dylan." Blizzo won, and in May 2023 the plow came to visit them. Other names in that contest included Betty Whiteout, The Big Leplowski, F. Salt Fitzgerald and Darth Blader.
Every plow in two states now has a fan club of children, which is the best thing that has ever happened to a snowplow.
Our street is plowed by a town truck with no name. Last winter the youngest decided to fix this. She named it Mister Plow. On snow mornings she stands at the front window in her pajamas and holds up the dog, who is old and heavy and does not appreciate it, and says, "Look, there's Mister Plow."
The driver has never waved. The youngest says he is very busy. The dog has asked, as clearly as a dog can ask, to be left out of it.
Sources
The public records, school pages and published accounts this story draws on. Where the story imagines a scene or a line of dialogue, that is the column’s telling, not a quotation.
- Olivia Lyons, Student-named snowplows visit Vermont schools, WCAX, November 17, 2021 wcax.com
- Nick Longworth, ‘Blizzo’ MnDOT snowplow visits Osseo school to meet those who named it, FOX 9, May 25, 2023 fox9.com
- Lakeview Students Find Inspiration for Winning Snowplow Name, Mahopac Central School District, January 7, 2026 mahopac.k12.ny.us