Members of the Steamboat Springs Eco Club will put their snowman-building skills to use this week to help raise awareness about climate change during a demonstration that is different than what the group has done in the past.

The high school students have invited the middle school Eco Club and members of the community to come join the snowman-building effort at 4 p.m. Friday on the lawn of the historic courthouse at 522 Lincoln Ave. in downtown Steamboat Springs.

Amelie Wild, co-president of the Eco Club, said Steamboat Springs High School is not the only school where students are building snowmen to promote awareness of climate change.

“It’s kind of neat that there are different high school students and different groups across the country that are doing this fun little ‘protest’ … but we’re really just building stuff and and putting signs up,” Wild said. “I think this is going to be a fun opportunity for all of us to get together and do what we love, which is sharing with our community our passions, and why we do what we do. But it’s also just being kids and building snowmen, and also showing that we care about this cause.”

Her hope is that community members who walk past the snowmen will stop and think about the messages the signs present.

“I think it’s really neat that the whole community will get to walk past what we’ve built and read these signs and make the issues a little more approachable,” Wild said. “We want to make it a little more approachable because I think climate activism is something that’s sometimes a little bit intimidating for people — and we just want them to see that it’s just a snowman. “

Wild said the Eco Club at the high school has about 20 regular members and up to 100 people who participate virtually.

“We run different protests, we’re going to try to have a movie next month and we’re going to try and do a little coffee talk where we come together and talk about climate change,” Wild said. “We work with the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council, we do tree plantings and we encourage people to go to YVSC tree plantings in an effort get the high school students involved in all of the sustainability efforts in the community and to create our own.”

The Snowmen Against Global Warming protest this week is a little different for the group, and members are excited to be a part of the event.

“The Eco Club at the high school has had some other similar climate protest kind of things before,” said high school senior Morgan Yeiser, an Eco Club member. “This time we are changing it up a little bit, especially since we have so much snow for building snowmen. We’ve also invited the middle school Eco Club and any other community members that want to attend the event.”

The group, led by co-presidents Wild, Connor Frithsen and Shea Speer, hopes for a good turnout. The hope is to build at least 5-10 snowmen that will hold signs throughout the weekend.

“We are just trying to find a more creative way to get more people involved and make a longer-lasting statement,” Yeiser said. “The signs will be up all weekend.”