Mike Groll / AP

Adam Bloss of Rochester, N.Y., an inmate at the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility, cuts ice blocks from Lake Flower to be used in the construction of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace on Jan. 28, in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

Mike Groll / AP

Inmates from the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility line up before helping construct the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace on Jan. 28, in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

By Michael Hill, The Associated Press

It's a far cry from breaking rocks in the hot sun on a chain gang. In New York's Adirondack Mountains, inmates break ice on a frozen lake to make a giant winter palace.

A work crew from an area "shock" prison camp once again this year helped local volunteers create this mountain village's lakeside ice palace — the shimmering centerpiece of the annual Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, starting Friday.

Under snowy skies this week, inmates marched onto the frozen lake in military formation in winter-weight prison greens and hard hats. Working alongside the volunteers, they were handed poles to break off blocks or head-high saws to cut through the ice. Others in the boot camp-style incarceration program were dispatched to the tall walls of the palace with buckets of slush to fit between blocks like mortar.

"Sir, yes sir! This is an experience of a lifetime, sir," said inmate Patrick O'Donnell. The 24-year-old from Long Island, like all inmates at Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility, answers questions like a new military recruit.

"Sir, where I live there's not much snow, so to see something like this is an experience, sir."

Moriah, about 45 miles from Saranac Lake through twisting mountain roads, houses a six-month shock program designed to build character and self-esteem.

Prisoners convicted of nonviolent offenses like burglary, forgery or drug sales can shave months or years off their sentences by successfully completing a shock program — but it's tough. Inmates wake up at 5:30 a.m. for intense days of exercise, academics and substance abuse treatment.

Continue reading.

Mike Groll / AP

Volunteer Jeff Branch, top, and inmates from the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility, work on the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace on Jan. 28, in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

Mike Groll / AP

Inmates from the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility, wearing green, work with volunteers breaking off ice blocks from Lake Flower that will be used to construct the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace on Jan. 28, in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

Mike Groll / AP

Naquan Shideo from the Brooklyn borough of New York, an inmate at the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility, uses slush water to seal ice blocks while helping construct the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace on Jan. 28, in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

Mike Groll / AP

Inmates from the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility, wearing green, work with volunteers breaking off ice blocks from Lake Flower that will be used to construct the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace on Jan. 28, in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

Mike Groll / AP

An inmate from the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility cuts ice blocks from Lake Flower that will be used to construct the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace on Jan. 28, in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

Related links:

• Puppy training: Future service dogs head to maximum-security prison
• New York's shock camps claim to keep inmates out of prison
• A rare look inside San Quentin state prison
• America's only all-female chain gang toils in Phoenix heat

Mark Lennihan / AP, file

Ironworkers James Brady, left, and Billy Geoghan release the cables from a steel beam after connecting it on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center in New York on Aug. 2, 2012. The beam was signed by President Barack Obama with the words: "We remember," ''We rebuild" and "We come back stronger!" during a ceremony at the construction site June 14. Also adorned with the autographs of workers and police officers at the site, the beam will be sealed into the structure of the tower, which is scheduled for completion in 2014.

Mark Lennihan / AP

Graffiti left by visitors to One World Trade Center is seen on a steel column on the 104th floor on Jan. 15, 2013.

The Associated Press reports — On most construction projects, workers are discouraged from signing or otherwise scrawling on the iron and concrete. At the skyscraper rising at ground zero, though, they're being invited to leave messages for the ages.

"Freedom Forever. WTC 9/11" is scrawled on a beam near the top of the gleaming, 104-story One World Trade Center. "Change is from within" is on a beam on the roof. Another reads: "God Bless the workers & inhabitants of this bldg."

The words on beams, walls and stairwells of the skyscraper that replaces the twin towers lost on Sept. 11, 2001, form the graffiti of defiance and rebirth, what ironworker supervisor Kevin Murphy calls "things from the heart." Read the full story.

Related:

One World Trade Center rises, providing breathtaking views of Manhattan

View a panoramic image of the National Sept. 11 Memorial

Ground Zero ten years later

Mark Lennihan / AP

The name Antony is seen on a steel column on the 102nd floor of One World Trade Center on Jan. 15, 2013. Workers finishing New York's tallest building are leaving their personal marks on the concrete and steel in the form of graffiti.

Mark Lennihan / AP

A message left by Michael Chertoff, the former director of Homeland Security, on a steel column on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center, seen on Jan. 15, 2013.

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

A sign is seen outside a home devastated by fire and the effects of Hurricane Sandy in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough in New York on Jan. 15.

Justin Lane / EPA

Two neighbors watch as Doreen Lagno's house, which was irreparably damaged by flood waters during Hurricane Sandy, is demolished in the Ocean Breeze neighborhood of Staten Island, New York on Jan. 15.

Justin Lane / EPA

The claw of a demolition vehicle brings down Doreen Lagno's house, which was irreparably damaged by flood waters during Hurricane Sandy, in the Ocean Breeze neighborhood of Staten Island.

Justin Lane / EPA

Peter Gill works with his father James and a friend Mark Faljean on repairs to his home that was damaged by flood waters in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in Staten Island, New York.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Workers with the parks department clean sand from a playground damaged during Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaways on Jan. 15.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Workers walk on a boardwalk damaged during Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaways on Jan. 15, in the Queens borough of New York City.

Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Residents of the Northeast are still picking up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

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A $50.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package is expected to be voted on today in the House. The package, which has come under criticism by some fiscal conservatives, is being heavily pushed by Northeastern lawmakers. The money would be spent on immediate needs to the region including $5.4 billion for New York and New Jersey transit systems and $5.4 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief aid fund.

-- Getty Images

• With House set to OK Sandy spending, efforts continue to add unrelated funds
  
• More images from Hurricane Sand coverage

Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

Tens of thousands of vehicles damaged by super storm Sandy are being temporarily stored on runways and taxiways at Calverton Executive Airpark in Calverton, N.Y., on Jan. 9.

Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

Vehicles damaged by super storm Sandy fill the runways at Calverton Executive Airpark in Calverton, N.Y., on Jan. 9.

Insurance Auto Auctions Inc., a salvage auto auction company specializing in total-loss vehicles, acquired cars and trucks damaged by super storm Sandy and are temporarily storing them at Calverton Executive Airpark in Calverton, N.Y.

The cars are expected to be removed from the site within three to six months, and will be auctioned online to a variety of buyers.

The company made a deal with the town of Riverhead, N.Y., to store the vehicles at the airport for nearly $3 million.

• Concerns Over Tarmac Storage of Sandy-Damaged Cars
• Sandy could impact unsuspecting used-car buyers

- AFP-Getty Images and NBCNewYork.com

Mario Tama / Getty Images

People walk past a beached whale in the Breezy Point neighborhood on Dec. 26, 2012 in the Queens borough of New York City. Breezy Point was especially hard hit by Superstorm Sandy. Rescuers believe the whale will not be able to be saved.

Updated Dec. 27: Marine officials said the whale has died.

WNBC reports:

A 60-foot-long finback whale was discovered beached Wednesday morning along Jamaica Bay in Breezy Point, Queens.

"It's an animal that is severely emaciated," said Rob DiGiovanni, Executive Director of the Riverhead Foundation. "It is severely underweight. The outcome does not look good.”

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David Friedman / NBC News

Tom Fraser-Dillon tries out the new snare drum his son Mack just received as a Christmas present.

Christmas Eve at the Fraser-Dillon house is supposed to be crazy. It’s supposed to be loud, and there should be 20 to 30 family members and friends coming through for non-stop cooking and celebration. There should be a real Christmas tree, “the fullest from the lot,” decorated Victorian style.

This year it’s just Tom and Kim, their son Mack, 13, daughter Alexa, 19, her boyfriend Brian Kolb, their two dogs Gia and Otis, a pizza delivery, and a fake tree. But they’re here, while most of their neighbors are not.

David Friedman / NBC News

Kim and Tom, interrupted from last minute gift wrapping, try to coax Gia off the table.

David Friedman / NBC News

Brian Kolb, left, and Alexa, Kim and Mack Fraser-Dillon gather for a pizza delivery dinner on Christmas Eve.

Their Breezy Point, N.Y., home was inundated with superstorm Sandy’s floodwaters. “Jellyfish on the table. Seaweed in the refrigerator,” Kim remembers finding after three feet of water receded from their main floor. The house has belonged to Kim’s family since 1969 and it’s the only home Mack and Alexa have ever known.

“Kim said I want to be in by Christmas,” Tom recalls. So he got to work. He’s been living there full-time since the storm – eating many military style MREs – doing most of the cleanup and rebuilding work himself, with help from Kolb. He ticks off a list of tasks completed already: mold remediation, new flooring, new insulation, new sheetrock, new electrical.

Today, just before Christmas Eve dinner, Tom got their heat working again for the first time since Sandy.

David Friedman / NBC News

Tom plays with Gia, left, and Otis.

David Friedman / NBC News

The Fraser-Dillon house is the only inhabited house in their neighborhood on Christmas Eve.

See more of NBCNews.com's continuing coverage of Breezy Point in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy, including how some spent their Thanksgiving there.

Bebeto Matthews / AP

"Sandy Claus" Michael Sciaraffo makes a toy delivery to a home in the Bell Harbor neighborhood of New York on Dec. 18, 2012. Using Facebook, Sciaraffo started a charitable enterprise to collect and personally deliver toys to children affected by Superstorm Sandy.

Bebeto Matthews / AP

Sciaraffo, a political consultant who has worked for Hillary Clinton and City Hall, sits at his workstation in Brooklyn as he takes a phone request for a toy on Dec. 18, 2012.

The Associated Press reports — From his toy-cluttered Brooklyn apartment, the man in the red suit was making his list and checking it twice. But he made no distinction between naughty or nice: Every child on it would receive a gift from this Santa Claus.

Related: 'Stars of hope' brighten Breezy Point

For the children whose toys floated away during Superstorm Sandy, Michael Sciaraffo is playing the role of a real-life Saint Nick. Every afternoon and night, he stuffs his red sack to the brim with presents and heads out to storm-ravaged homes, personally delivering new toys to awestruck little kids whose play rooms were destroyed by floodwaters. 

Bebeto Matthews / AP

Elizabeth Sampol holds her daughter, Ella, 14 months, as she receives a toy from Michael Sciaraffo in the Belle Harbor section of Queens on Dec. 18, 2012.

The charitable enterprise grew out of a Sandy donation outreach effort that Sciaraffo had been spearheading for weeks in the wake of the storm, drumming up donations of clothing and food through Facebook. As the holidays approached, he realized that lots of children would be without their toys this year. Read the full story.

See more images of superstorm Sandy and its aftermath on PhotoBlog

Bebeto Matthews / AP

Ella Sampol looks at her present as her mother Elizabeth and Michael Sciaraffo look on, on Dec. 18, 2012.

Bebeto Matthews / AP

A rainbow appears as Michael Sciaraffo leaves the home of Ella Sampol in Belle Harbor, Queens on Dec. 18, 2012. "You don't see that every day," Sciaraffo said, grinning as his beard slipped down his face a little. "Amazing."

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John Makely / NBC news

John Makely / NBC News

Brightly painted stars appear on the otherwise stark landscape of Breezy Point in a section where over 100 homes burned the night Superstorm Sandy hit.

"Joy," "Hope" "Smile" and "You Got This" are just a few of the inspirational messages sent from children around the country who themselves have been affected by disaster. Stars of Hope is a project started by the New York Says Thank You Foundation, which began in 2007 after founder Jeff Parnes saw the devastation that an F5 tornado inflicted on Greensburg, Kansas. "It literally looked like a bomb. The town was 95 percent destroyed, trees were standing with no leaves, everything was just dirt, and all the families who stayed were living in FEMA trailers south of town," Parnes recalled.

"We were standing there thinking, 'How do you bring color back to the town? How do you bring a sense of community back to the town, and how do you empower the children to be part of that dynamic?' So we just had this wacky idea --what if we paint wood stars and plant them on every corner ... and empower the kids to express through their own creativity their hopes for the future?" asked Parnes.

He gave the town's schoolchildren the basic idea and they took it from there.  "We want you to think of one word that if your friends, family or neighbors were having a bad day and they saw that word, it would put a smile on their face," Parnes said. The kids painted expressions and designs on the stars, and the next day they were planted throughout Greensburg.  "So literally, overnight, this project was able to transform not just the physical landscape, but the emotional landscape."

John Makely / NBC News

John Makely / NBC News

Since then, each town that receives stars paints stars for the next town hit with hardship. It's their way of paying it forward.

About 5,000 more stars are coming to Sandy-hit towns from other communities that have seen their own disasters:  Joplin, Mo.,  Minot, N.D., Grossbeck, Texas.  All have stars in the pipeline, adding to the 2,000 already placed in 14 communities hit by the storm.

"It's about empowering survivors. Kids get it, they have an innate sense of hope." Parnes said.

At least one Breezy Point resident noticed the arrival of the stars this week.  "It's an amazing thing, whoever is doing it.  It gives you hope… each message is just great," said Timothy Brennan, an ironworker whose home was destroyed in the fire, as he was digging through the debris of an elderly neighbor's house looking for keepsakes. "You may have a tear, but you can have a smile also. "

John Makely / NBC News

Shine in the Darkness...Like a Star of Hope. One of 2,000 Stars of Hope placed throughout Sandy-affected areas.

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Carlo Allegri / Reuters

Farah Sheikh takes part in a candlelight vigil in Times Square for the victims of the Connecticut school shooting on Dec. 14, 2012 in New York.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Julie Henson of San Francisco participates in a candle light vigil outside the White House to remember the victims at the Connecticut school shooting on Dec. 14, in Washington, D.C.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Local resident Rachel Perrone, left, and her five-year-old son Joe participate in a candle light vigil outside the White House to remember the victims at the Connecticut school shooting on Dec. 14, in Washington, D.C.

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

People stand with candles outside the overflow area of a vigil at the Saint Rose of Lima church in Newtown, Conn., Dec. 14.

Slideshow: Connecticut school massacre

Michelle Mcloughlin / Reuters

The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.

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All photos by John Moore / Getty Images

Veterinarian Philip Fox mounts a heart monitor on the side of Oliver, a golden retriever, at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, Dec. 10, 2012.

John Moore, Getty Images — The non-profit Animal Medical Center, established in 1910, has 80 veterinarians in 17 specialty services that treat up to 40,000 animal visits annually. Clients bring in their pets from around the country, and world, to the teaching hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side for specialized high-tech treatment. The American Pet Products Association estimates that Americans spent more than $50 billion on their pets in 2012, $14 billion of that in veterinary care alone.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Images made available to NBC News on Dec. 14

Anesthesiologist Patty Fontana calms Cody, who had been sedated to take x-rays of his hip, at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, Dec. 10.

Veterinarian Josh Steinhouse retrieves surgical instruments while operating on a dog at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, Dec. 12. A team of veterinary specialists removed bladder stones from the pet during the surgical procedure in the hospital's $3.5 million hybrid operating suite, the only one of its kind in the U.S.

A bearded dragon stands under a heat lamp before receiving an ultrasound test for pregnancy at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, Dec. 12.

Veterinarian Laura Proietto speaks with a pet owner about his dog's condition at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, Dec. 12.

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