Community Corner

Two Bethel Residents Enter Aquarium Lighthouse Contest

Two locals enter 12th annual Festival of Lighthouses Contest.

Model lighthouses created by two Bethel residents are helping to light the way for visitors to The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk as part of the Aquarium’s 12th annual “Festival of Lighthouses Contest.”   

Charles Weeks’ “Three Dog Light” and Chris Bray’s “Bray Family Lighthouse” [pictured above] are among the 22 creative lighthouses in the holiday display, which will be open daily from Nov. 16 through Jan. 20, 2014.

The exhibit is free with Aquarium admission. Visitors can follow these homemade beacons through the galleries and then cast a vote for their favorite. The lighthouse with the most votes wins $1,500.

The lighthouses were built by local artists looking for a challenge, by friends and families who wanted to work together on a fun project, and by students fulfilling an assignment.

“The best gifts are those gifts that are unexpected yet show great thought,” Aquarium Director of Exhibits Judith Bacal said. “The ‘Lighthouse Contest’ is like a gift for us each year, because the designs are always so unexpected and the finished works show such thought and craftsmanship.”

Rules are kept to a minimum to allow for maximum creativity. Lighthouses must be 3 to 6 feet tall and have a working light, and may not include animal remains (such as shells). Beyond that, it’s up to the creators’ imaginations.

Weeks is a lighthouse-contest regular. His entry this year is a skeleton-style lighthouse whose red-and-yellow structural supports lead up to a black crown. The lighthouse stands on a rocky base, next to a red-brick keeper’s house. On the front deck of the house are three lounging dogs — giving the entry the name of “Three Dog Light.”

Bray has entered the contest before, too — in 2011. This time, his non-traditional lighthouse is constructed from circular cuts of wood, stacked to look similar to a curving Seuss-like tube that bends up to a revolving light under a conical crown. The beacon is painted silver with colorful specks, and rises from a round circle of blue “water.”

Other entries this year include: a lighthouse made from Twinkies, Ho Hos and other Hostess snack cakes; a gingerbread lighthouse; one made of tin; one made of green plastic soda bottles; a lighthouse that celebrates the children’s board game Candy Land; and a World Series lighthouse set in a baseball stadium.

Four entries were built by students at The Ursuline School in New Rochelle, for their “Senior Introduction to Engineering” class.

Besides the $1,500 top award, other prizes are: $750 for second place, $375 for third; $300 for fourth; $225 for fifth; and $150 for sixth. Winners will be announced at an evening reception on Jan. 23.

For more details about Maritime Aquarium exhibits, IMAX movies and programs, call 203-852-0700 or go online to www.maritimeaquarium.org.

Based off a release from the Maritime Aquarium.


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