Mill Creek second graders win contest to name city snow plow

Published 1:30 am Saturday, February 7, 2026

EVERETT — Second graders at Penny Creek Elementary will see their chosen name on the side of a new dump truck and snow plow operated by the city of Mill Creek after winning a contest to name the new vehicle.

It took brainstorming from the entire class to come up with ideas for the name of the new truck, Everett Public Schools wrote in a Wednesday press release. After several rounds of voting, students decided on a final choice: “Glacier Guardian.”

It was a landslide victory for the Penny Creek Frogs, as the name submitted by Kristen Judd’s second grade class received nearly 70% of the vote.

“The students were so excited to see their idea come to life,” Judd wrote in the press release. “They worked together, listened to one another’s ideas, and took the voting process very seriously. It was a great lesson in teamwork and civic engagement.”

Other suggested names included The Polar Bear Express, Snowy the Snowplow, The Snice Machine, The Mill Creek Sweeper, The Wolf 6000, Powerful Plower and Frosty the Snowplow, according to the city of Mill Creek.

Funnily enough, nobody suggested Plowy McPlowface, a spinoff of a long-running internet joke that stemmed from a 2016 vote to name a British research ship Boaty McBoatface. Lynnwood does own a snow plow named Plowy McPlowface, though, and a Washington State Department of Transportation snow plow operating on the east side of the state bears the name Plowie McPlow Plow.

Students at the Edmonds School District also renamed three snow plows owned by the city of Edmonds in January. They named the plows Ice Ice Baby, Blizzard of Oz and Snow Shark, an Edmonds city press release read.

The new snow plow and dump truck cost Mill Creek just over $400,000. In a city council memo, the city said it would use the new truck as a way keep roads plowed in the winter, while using the dump truck during the rest of the year, preventing the need for rentals and keeping the city prepared for natural disasters. The council approved its purchase in November 2025.

The new truck is ready for the road, Mill Creek spokesperson Jody Hawkins wrote in an email Wednesday. The city’s public works team has been trained and is excited to begin using it, Hawkins wrote.

After the name is printed on the truck, the city will bring it to Penny Creek Elementary to celebrate with Judd’s class.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.