Blistering Heat Doesn’t Melt Hopes of Sand Artists

Snowmen, menacing green snakes, baseball diamonds – you name it, the kids created it in sand during the annual “Sand Sculpting Contest” sponsored by Sea Girt Chamber of Commerce July 21 at Chicago/Brooklyn Beach.

President of the Sea Girt Chamber of Commerce, Kevin Callahan, said: “This year is our eighth annual Sand Sculpting Contest, open to children from any community. Several chamber members have faithfully worked on this project every year. There is no cost to the participants and besides the prizes given out at the end of the competition, each child gets a T-shirt commemorating the event.”

The contest drew close to 30 children ranging from age 4 through 12, as well as officials such as Sea Girt Mayor Mark Clemmensen, who served as one of seven judges, with the rest of the panel consisting of borough officials, as well as two members of the military.

“I’ve been doing this for 10 years now – it’s one of the three events the chamber does for the borough each year,” said Clemmensen.  “It helps bring the community together – they’re family oriented events.  This is a nice place to be on a nice day like today – judging was challenging.”

Children started digging and sculpting in the sand at 9 a.m. The blazing sun gave way to fog and cooler weather, but the misty conditions didn’t deter the children, and the sun reappeared just in time for judging.

Mackenzie Randall, 10, Sea Girt, busily created her sand castle, and said, “This is my first year. I think I’ll place, but I don’t know if I’ll get first place.”

Not far away, working on a unique sand creation was Marie Schobel, 11, Sea Girt, who said, “I did a contest when I was 4, with my brother, and I’ve watched contests, but this is my first year. I’m making a turtle, and then a sand castle on top of it.”

Emily Gioacchini, 10, came from as far away as Lincroft to compete, and was practicing rolling a tennis ball down the sand mountain she was putting finishing touches on.

“This is my first time in the contest. I kind of want to win – some people gave me comments when they walked by,” she said.

Young sports fans incorporated their love of sport into their sand sculptures, such as an enormous soccer field and a Yankees baseball diamond.  Other children opted for sea creatures such as “Jaws vs. the Kraken,” and several sea turtles. One of the more creative and unusual sculptures was a replica of the “Smile – You’re in Sea Girt” sign made by Halle Moore, 8, of Massachusetts, visiting her grandparents in Sea Girt.

“We’ve done the contest a few years, but not last year. When everyone hears about Sea Girt, it makes them happy. When we see the sign, we all shout ‘Smile, you’re in Sea Girt!,’ because we like to come to Sea Girt,” she said. “I won first place two years ago – I did the boardwalk of Sea Girt with the houses, and the gazebo.”

Halle did it again this year, taking first place for her age group of ages 7 through 9.

Toward the end of the contest, some children got creative and used whatever “prop” was handy – such as a younger brother – to create a human sand sculpture. Grace Murphy, 11, Wall, however, didn’t need a sibling to get creative as she came up with the concept “Christmas in July” and made a snowman. Despite a rocky start where three feet of snow, er, sand crumpled, she persevered and built the character once again, which impressed judges enough to award her first place in the age 10-12 category.

Conveniently enough – as the tide was coming in – judging began at 10:30 a.m.  The sand sculptures were judged for first-, second- and third-place prizes in the age groups 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12, and children age 4-6 were permitted to work in teams, but ages 7 and older individually. Adults were allowed to coach, but couldn’t touch the works of art. Judging criteria was originality, technical difficulty, execution, loyalty to theme, and whether the children brought an element of Sea Girt into their design. First-place prizes for ages 7 and older were boogie boards, and sand-building tools for youngsters age 4-6.