Pro sculptors to begin own carving Thursday
Sixteen Master Sculptors will begin the individual competition phase of the 24th annual American Sand Sculpting Championship Festival tomorrow (Thursday, Nov. 11) on the south end of Fort Myers Beach and will continue shaping their sculptures all weekend long before adding final touches Sunday when the judging takes center stage. The winner will automatically qualify for the 2011 World Championships next September in Federal Way, Wash.
Competing in the Beach championship event at site sponsors Holiday Inn on the Beach, Gullwing and Pointe Estero beach resorts of Sunstream Hotels and Resorts are Carl Jara of Cleveland, Ohio; Lucinda “Sandy Feet” Wierenga of South Padre Island, Tex.; Jeff Strong of Tacoma, Wash.; Amazin’ Walter McDonald of South Padre Island, Tex.; Fred Mallett of Port Aransas, Tex; Sue McGrew from Seattle, Wash.; Karen Fralich of Ontario Canada; Sandis Kondrats of Latvia, European Union; Dan Belcher of St. Louis, Mo.; Bill Dow of Billings, Mont.; John Gowdy of Atlantic City, N.J.; Jon Woodworth of Leander, Tex.; Rusty Croft of Park City, Utah; Kirk Rademaker of Santa Cruz, Calif.; Matt Long of Staten island, N.Y.; and Brad Goll of Austin, Tex. The Masters Sculptors are engaged in the Group Sculpture Carving (a logo-sponsored sculpture) at the Holiday Inn site today.
Along with the three non-competing Master Sculptors on staff for the event (Suzanne Altamare, Bill Knight and Katie Corning), 15 of the 19 pro sculptors on the Beach this week recently competed at the Worlds event and seven collected medals. Corning, Mallett, Strong, Long and Rademaker captured silver in the team division, while Gowdy (with partner) snagged bronze in the doubles event and Belcher took fourth in the solo championships.
Florida State and amateur sculptors will also be a part of the five-day Beach festival event including competition days (Friday through Saturday). On those days, festival attendees can purchase a Master’s View pass for a fenced-off viewing of the Master Sculptors work. The daily rates are children and seniors for $3 each; adults for $5 each; and a family package (parent(s) with children) for $10 per day. The fee structure is also for attendance inventory (helpful for future use in getting sponsorships and Tourist Development Council dollars) and to make sure that the high level of competition continues.
Due to a strict no parking policy at event locations, the FMB Chamber is providing free parking and a free shuttle service just north of Lover’s Key State Park’s entrance.
According to FMB Sand Sculpting Chairman of the Board Andrew Cochrane, this year’s event is critically important to show people in the nation and world that this summer’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill never did and still hasn’t affected Lee County beaches.
“At the Chamber of Commerce, we still get calls daily from people thinking there is oil on our beach,” he said in an earlier story. “The TDC ramped up their sponsorship money because they wanted to showcase our beaches being clean. We hope people will take a lot of photos so that they can share them with their families and get them on different websites to show everybody how pristine our beaches are and jump-start the tourism for 2011.”
Go to the special Sand sculpting section in the middle of this issue for more detailed information.