As layers of dense snow covered the Town of Dartmouth Friday, releasing students town wide from their scheduled school day, Mary Waite of the Dartmouth School Committee came up with a way of keeping kids busy and helping the schools at the same time.

Waite decided to put out a challenge on Facebook for students to build their best snowman and submit a picture of it.

Waite and her family decided to donate $50 for the contest which would be donated to the Dartmouth Education Foundation in the name of the winner.

Soon after, another parent, Troy Tufano, offered to match the $50 donation and provide impartial judges in the form of his daughters, Aurelia, 9, and Gianna, 7, to pick the winner of the competition.

In total, about 20 to 30 snowmen were submitted from kids of all ages.

The winners, as chosen by the Tufano sisters, were the Thomas family who built a Dartmouth Pride-themed snowman complete with a green and white hat and scarf.

“We had a few that we wanted to win, but the Thomas’ was the best,” said Aurelia Tufano, explaining that she and her sister were particularly impressed with the use of Oreo cookies for eyes, even though one of them disappeared later that day.

“We think a squirrel took it,” she said.

The Tufano sisters said that the choice was a tough one and some of their other favorites included a snowman with hydrangea hair, another that wore a rainbow scarf and hat and a third that had a pickle for a nose.

But while the young judges rewarded creativity, they decided that the winner would have to be someone who made a real snowman, not a sculpture or a fort as some of the entrants submitted.

“We said that if it wasn’t a snowman, it wasn’t allowed to win,” said Aurelia. “It’s a snowman contest!”