BETHEL – Volunteers are being sought to help shovel and stomp 12 million pounds of snow into the world’s tallest snowwoman.

Other volunteers are needed to help man the Bethel Chamber of Commerce to sell products related to the project, to direct traffic, to help with 24-hour snowmaking, and to cook food for volunteers.

That’s what several people who turned out at Wednesday night’s World’s Tallest Snowwoman Volunteer Rally learned.

“We’ll have 12 people on the snowwoman at a time, but as it goes up, it will be less people,” volunteer coordinator Colleen Files said.

Snowmaking is scheduled to start Monday and continue for five days, temperature and weather permitting. Actual construction of the 120-foot-tall snow mama starts the following Monday, Feb. 4.

Snow stompers will work from one to three hours – preferably three hours – during the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. per day construction time, Files said.

The project is expected to be completed by Feb. 18, but is dependent on the weather.

“As long as we have cold weather, we’re good,” Files said.

The snowwoman’s base will be 96 feet in diameter, 16 feet more than Bethel’s previous world record tallest snowman, Angus, who weighed in at about 8 million pounds of snow, project engineer Jim Sysko said.

“That was a fun project. Next time, we’ll build a whole family,” Sysko said of a future possibility of trying to top a 120-foot snowwoman.

When completed on Feb. 17, 1999, Angus, which stood 113 feet, 7 inches tall, broke the previous record of 96 feet, 7 inches that was set by Yagamata, Japan. Since Angus, Sysko said Japan and Italy tried to top Bethel, but both attempts failed. Japan only made it to 90 feet and Italy, to 102 feet.

The snowwoman’s neck level will be about 24 feet in diameter, with a 16-foot diameter hat.

“We’ll try to make a waist about 50 feet up,” Sysko said.

Magenta fleece material has already been ordered to make a 50-foot round knit hat for the snow giantess and a long scarf. Her eyelashes will be skis attached to 2-by-4s and her hair will be made with 1,500 feet of yellow rope.

As with Angus, towering spruce trees will be used as her arms, skidder tires for buttons, and tires painted lipstick pink for her mouth. Woodstock Elementary School students are tasked with making her nose, Files said.

“I think it’s great,” volunteer Bud Kulik of Bethel said after signing up to help. “How many times do you get to be a part of recorded history for Pete’s sake?”

“This is so fun, and my kids are very excited to help build the world’s largest snowwoman, so it’s a family affair,” volunteer stomper Janet Bartlett of Bethel said.

Equally thrilled was volunteer Bob Westfall, who moved to Bethel with his wife from Michigan in October.

“This will be a fun project for us,” he said. “I thought (Angus) was a really neat thing for a community to do, and I couldn’t believe they actually accomplished it.”

To complement the project, Files said local artists will be building snowmen around town as an art trail to get people out and about within Bethel.

Additionally, the chamber launched a Web site at www.bethelmainesnowwoman.com where people around the world can watch the project as it unfolds via a live Web cam and a photograph gallery.

“It’s going to be cool,” Kulik said.