Uncle Kevin's Snowman
The 'snowwoman' towering over this
village features eyelashes created from discarded skis and
bright red lips made from painted car tires. She wears a giant
red hat and a 100-foot-long scarf, and her blond tresses are
made from rope. She gets a little bling from a snowflake
pendant that's 6 feet long.
'She's a
beauty. Gotta love those eyelashes,' said Robin Zinchuk,
executive director of the local chamber of commerce
and a chief instigator of the town's offbeat
project.
With the
temperature in single digits, several hundred people including
busloads of schoolchildren turned out for Friday's dedication
of the 122-foot-tall mountain of snow.
This ski town
of about 2,400 residents already holds the record for tallest
snowman, dedicated in 1999. Since then, they have been waiting
for someone else to break the record. When no one rose to the
challenge, the folks here decided they'd have to break the
record themselves.
 Mark
Bancroft, who donated the 150-foot crane used during the
project, noted that it has been a tough winter with high fuel
costs and nasty weather.
 'What does
Bethel , Maine , do when it gets tough? We build a snowman!'
he said to the muffled applause of mittens and gloves clapping
together.
 '
Olympia ,'
named for Maine 's senior senator, Olympia Snowe, stands
nearly 10 feet taller than 'Angus, King of the Mountain,' who
was
dedicated by the town in 1999. That snowman, named for
then-Gov. Angus King, was created by the same folks
responsible for Olympia
Angus
Although the snowwoman's namesake was unable to attend
Friday's dedication because of her duties in Washington, a
statement was read to the crowd. .
'I've
joked that it's just my luck I'd have a world record-breaking
monument named after me -- and it will be gone by summer,' the
senator said.
It took more
than a month, dozens of volunteers and tons of snow to create
Olympia . Jim Sysko, a civil engineer, oversaw design and
construction.  To get an
idea of scale, Olympia is about 30 feet shorter than the
Statue of Liberty (without the base). Her arms consist of
27-foot-tall evergreens. Her
'carrot' nose, painted by schoolchildren, is 8 feet long.
Her eyes
are made from giant wreaths.
 She was
built with a series of concentric circles.
The crane
dumped the snow into frames, and volunteers climbed in for
long hours shoveling and packing the snow.
 'The best
part of it is how everyone in town pitched in and made it
happen,' said volunteer David Lynch. 'It got hairy up at the
top. I only made it to 80 feet.' The final product is the talk of
the town. People especially liked the lashes created from old
skis donated from theSunday River ski resort. 'It's the whimsy of it all. That's
what makes it so great,' said Iris Roberts, of Jefferson City
, Mo. , who watched with her husband on
Friday.
Angus was
certified as the world's tallest snowman by the Guinness Book
of Records. It remains to be seen ifOlympia will get the nod as
tallest snowman, or snowwoman. There's currently no separate
category for snowwoman, so residents are petitioning for
one.
 There was
plenty of snow for the project. Parts of Maine have had more
than 100
inches of snow this season, unlike 1999 when Angus was built.
 Volunteers
started with manmade snow and then used snow piled on the
runway of
the municipal airport to finish the job.
 'People
love it. With all this snow, we did something good with it,'
said Darlene Ginsberg, who directed traffic with one hand
while holding a cup of hot coffee in the
other.
After the
ceremony, local resident Julia Reuter stepped to the
microphone and led the crowd in an impromptu singalong to the
classic song, 'Winter Wonderland.' In fact, more winter weather was
on tap for Friday night.
Alex Kaufman from Sunday River
credited Olympia for bringing the snowiest winter in 12 years.
Then he took a jab at Angus.
'Angus didn't bring squat
for snow,' he quipped. 'In this case, it took a woman to get
it done.'
To read more, visit www.bethelmainesnowwoman.com/
To watch a live webcam of
Olympia , click
here
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Olympia's eyelashes are made from
skis and her bright red lips are painted
tires.
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