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Minnesota News
Sam Stroozas

'Lizzo! Blizzard! Blizzo!' These 6th graders nailed the Name a Snowplow contest

A woman holding a microphone rides a snow plow
In our dreams, Lizzo rides Blizzo the snowplow on the streets of Minnesota.
Images by Live Nation and Joe Ahlquist, graphic by Sam Stroozas | MPR News

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Move over recording academy, Lizzo has another award worth celebrating. “Blizzo” won second place in the 2023 “Name a Snowplow” contest for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

While the name came from multiple sources, no one championed it as hard as Ann Mack’s sixth grade class at Osseo Middle School.

Mack teaches history at Osseo, northwest of Minneapolis. Every day, she checks the news to see what is happening in the state that she can incorporate into her second period Minnesota history course. And there it was — the MnDOT “Name a Snowplow” contest.

She asked her sixth graders to brainstorm a name, but it had to have something to do with Minnesota history.

Students started blurting out names.

“Prince!”

“Bob Dylan!”

“Yung Gravy"!”

“Lizzo!” “Wait … Blizzard! Blizzo!”

And Blizzo was born. Mack waited for the final 60 candidates to be announced from MnDOT, and when she saw Blizzo made the list, she and her class campaigned tirelessly to get it to the top.

Parents, teachers, friends, students voted — all in the name of Lizzo. She moved to Minnesota in 2011 and although she only lived here a short time, her impact was not subtle.

While some of her students are fans of Lizzo, Mack says she thinks she’s the biggest one.

“I played the flute in high school too, I just love that she is a true musician. She understands music and has this passion. I love her body positivity and the message she sends to young girls and all women alike,” she said.

Brynn Bomar, 12, is in Mack’s second period course. She says she was excited to enter the contest and is looking forward to seeing Blizzo on the streets. On Friday, the class celebrated with donuts and a screening of the Minnesota classic, “Mighty Ducks.”

The class has one hope: that Lizzo herself recognizes their hard work.