Local Families and Kids are Big Winners in Sandcastle Contest

View more images and videos

We had a beautiful, sunny day on Saturday for the 7th annual Oceancity.com Sandcastle Contest co-sponsored by the OC Parrothead Club, and the contestants took advantage of it to create a wide variety of memorable sand sculptures, ranging from silly to spectacular. While Parrothead volunteers came around offering to preserve competitors' work with a spray-on mixture of water and Elmer's Glue, kids carefully dug moats with little plastic shovels, and on his own giant mound of sand the professional sand artist George Zaiser chipped away at the delicate towers of his surprisingly realistic medieval castle.

This year's contest was held the day before Fathers' Day, and the family spirit of the holiday was definitely in the air. One man I spoke to had been a regular Ocean City vacationer during his son's childhood, but hadn't been here for more than 20 years. This year, he had come back with his children and grandchildren! All around the beach, dads were helping small children to use their shovels and other tools, or encouraging them to build bigger, better castles. Some families took a different approach -- one mom I spoke to had brought all of her family's children to the contest, letting Dad have Saturday to himself!

In fact, the whole Ocean City community was like one big family this weekend. The Parrothead Club provided friendly, helpful volunteers, while the dedicated men and women who run Play it Safe helped the graduating seniors get their armbands to ride the OC bus at no charge while they explained the event. Meanwhile, local businesses like Old Pro Golf, the Ocean City Hotel Motel and Restaurant Association, the OC Chamber of Commerce, the Makai Condominiums, Kendall Home Furnishings, Coconut Times newspaper, Deer Run Golf Club, and the OC Recreation Boosters sponsored teams of competitors in the Play it Safe division, while other corporations, including Medieval Times Restaurant, Six Flags, the Carousel Resort Hotel, the Best Western Hotel and Convention Center in Balitmore, OceanCity.com, The Globe Theater in downtown Berlin, Deer Run Golf Club, and Old Pro contributed exciting prizes for the winners. Even the Coca Cola company donated prizes -- a Coca Cola cooler for each winning team member, complete with a six-pack of Powerade inside. Coke also provided free soft drinks, including oh-so-important bottles of water, to the hot and tired contestants. And of course, the event wouldn't have been possible without the Carousel hotel, which hosted the contest and provided a buffet lunch for the competitors. Carousel employees were everywhere, helping out with the catering and making sure everyone was having a good time.

Also contributing to the fun and relaxed atmosphere, DJ Rupe manned the audio booth all day, spinning summer classics like the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA," the Go Go's "Vacation," and of course, lots of Jimmy Buffett for the Parrotheads in the crowd. Some of the teen competitors danced while their teammates worked on the castles, while others just threw themselves into the construction process. DJ Rupe himself was in a great mood, celebrating his 25th year working in the entertainment business in Ocean City. He took a minute to chat with me about his business, and mentioned that so far this summer has been a lively one even by OC standards, and he has been constantly busy with parties and bar events. Under those circumstances, I was impressed to learn that he had volunteered to donate his time and equipment to the OceanCity.com Sandcastle Contest this year and has already agreed to volunteer his time, talent, and tunes for next year's event. With Oceancity.com representative Ann McGinnis Hillyer, Rupe also co-emceed the award ceremony that ended the event.

View more images and videos

Additional entertainment was provided by Medieval Times, whose knights have performed a swordfight among the castles at the contest for the past four years. The knights were excited to perform for such a great audience, largely made up of kids and families who cheered loudly and waved their Medieval Times pennants at the spectacle while "Miserlou" by Dick Dale played in the background. At the dramatic finale, when one knight "stabbed" the other with his (very real, sharp) sword, and stood atop Zaiser's once spectacular, but now ruined castle while the vanquished knight rolled down the side of the hill, the crowd went wild.

While the level of competition certainly didn't match the violence of the sword fight, many teams were heavily invested in winning the day. The 1st-place winners of the Team category, Artistic Differences, had already won 1st or 2nd place in the contest several years running. When asked what advice they'd give to other teams wanting to take home the Golden Trowel, team member Eric Bollinger took a momentary break from shaping perfect scales on the back of a dragon to reply, "patience... really, just patience." His partner, Glenda Roberts, looked up in amusement before returning to work on the fairy-tale castle that the dragon was guarding.

Coming in second place in the team category, Team Sandtastic relied on impressive family teamwork to create a towering castle with turrets and festive flags. The Sandtastic team responded enthusiastically to the judges' decision. And in third place, Sandman Mark's elegant "drip castle" impressed the judges with its simplicity and form.

View more images and videos

The "Kids Only" category included some displays of great talent, notably including first-place winners The Candy Collection, from Annandale, VA. In second place, the O'Meara Kids from Mount Vernon, VA displayed teamwork rarely seen between young siblings as they created a stunning moated castle. And the third-place team, The Disciples, brought a large family and a lot of hard work to the creation of their sprawling sand palace.

The third category was reserved for teens participating in the Play it Safe program. The first prize in this category went to Team CCMS, a group of friends from Brookeville, MD who met in middle school. Second place was awarded to The Knights, two young men from Severna Park, MD who built a detailed Egyptian pyramid. And finally, the third-place winners were SADD from Berlin, who created a sculpture to honor their school group, Students Against Destructive Decisions.

In an OceanCity.com Sandcastle Contest tradition, prizes were also awarded to those who won the "Buy a Vote" competition, encouraging others to donate to Play it Safe in order to win them votes. This year, "Buy a Vote" had two winning teams: Team No-Name, with $52, and the OC Hippies, with $51.

At the end of the long day, the contestants enjoyed their buffet reception, collected their prizes, and ran off to cool down in the ocean. The sandcastles stayed intact for a while, though, reminding everyone of how much great teamwork had been accomplished that day.