'We Know We Can Make A Difference': Bartz Brothers Debut Snow Sculptures For 8th Year

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Each winter, Austin, Trevor and Connor build a larger-than-life masterpiece.

It started on a snow day after a trip to Florida.

"We built a puffer fish that was about 6 feet tall, and everyone loved it a ton and so they said, 'You gotta keep going, you gotta keep doing this every year,'" Austin said. "So now, eight years later, we're still building giant snow sculptures."

But this isn't just a tradition for the Bartz family.

"We come every year, last year I think they did the octopus, didn't they?" a neighbor said.

"It's amazing. It's amazing the amount of work," another neighbor added.

"A lot of joy, I mean most people the drive by you can see there is just a big smile on their face," Connor said.

The brothers say as they get older, life comes with more responsibilities, and keeping up a time-consuming tradition can be hard -- that's why they've recruited some friends to help this year.

"Everyone always tells us, 'No you can't stop, we love you guys too much,' so we feel a little bit of pressure to keep it going."

The siblings do this for fun -- and as a fundraiser.

This year, they're supporting an organization called "One Day's Wages" to provide clean water for people in Vietnam.

"It's a really hard process, it takes a ton of time and time where we could all be working or relaxing or doing other things, but now that we have a purpose behind it we know we can make a difference by it, it makes it totally worth it," Connor said.