We’re celebrating our 40th anniversary with monthly dives into our archives. This look back is from our July 1998 “Cool Jobs” issue.
In July 1998, for a feature about “Cool Jobs,” we talked to ice sculptor Mike Vosburg, a former executive chef who had started a new business, Ice Sculptures Unlimited. He recalls a favorite job, a commission for Michael Bloomberg’s annual Christmas party in Washington, D.C. “Every year, he had a theme, and that year, the theme was ice,” he says, describing the 20-foot-high beaded ice curtain he and his team created.
While working as an ice sculptor, Vosburg had attended Faith Landmarks Bible Institute’s three-year ministry program. He sold his business to a competitor in 2012 and founded iChoose Ministries Inc., a recovery ministry for the drug- and alcohol-addicted. In 2009, he began volunteering as a chaplain in the prison system, and he started working part-time at Greensville Correctional Center in 2013. Last year, he transferred to Deerfield Correctional Center, which has a large population of older inmates.
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Mike Vosburg with an ice sculpture in 1998 (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Ministering inside Deerfield Correctional Center, where Vosburg serves as chaplain (Photo courtesy Grace Inside)
“Being there every day and seeing the smiles on people’s faces ... where people are behind bars and feel rejection, to be there and make a difference in their life is very rewarding,” he says. “It was a big change going from the freezer to go into the chaplaincy.”
Though Vosburg no longer sculpts ice, he is getting ready to attend a wood-carving bootcamp. “Once it’s in you, it’s always in you,” he says.
