Kyle Jr (left, 8), John (middle, 4), and Leah (right, 6) creating the Kyle Kyle Crocodile. Jayniel Bermudez Photo.
Bathing in the warmth of a hot and windy day, siblings Kyle, John, and Leah Rouse smoothed their hands against an enormous crocodile made of sand. They added small rocks as teeth, and then more pebbles as eyes. Never did they need to reach for a tool. As the tide went out, “Kyle Kyle Crocodile” was born.
The crocodile, so named in honor of doting dad Kyle Rouse, Sr., was one of several sand sculptures to materialize Saturday at Walnut Beach in Milford, as over 40 contestants effortlessly transformed sand, water, and other materials into elaborate structures for the Milford Arts Council's (The MAC) 49th Annual Sand Sculpture Contest.
Organized by Susan Brown, who also runs the Purple Pantry Organization, the contest is meant to promote fun in the sun and amplify the arts as a community activity every year, especially in the summer. The contest allows tools of all sorts, from simple shovels, to hoes, spades, and buckets. In a nod to both safety and the contest’s roots, power tools are not allowed.
Brown has organized the contest for the last five years. Prior to that time, the contest ran continuously from the late 1970s through the present, with one cancellation due to predicted severe weather in 2021.
Susan Brown. Jayniel Bermudez Photo.
In 2020, during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the contest went digital, “asking participants from across the country to build on their beaches and share their work with us,” recalled MAC Executive Director Paige Miglio in an email. “We had a couple hundred entries, which was amazing and very much appreciated by everyone.”
“It is an event that has stayed true to its beginnings, it has not commercialized, although every year we discuss ways to expand it,” Miglio added. “But that has not happened. But next year is the 50th, so I expect we will finally make some strides to bring in other elements while respecting its charm.”
“I think that everybody in Milford should be grateful that the Milford Arts Council is so involved with the community,” Brown said.
Brown and fellow volunteers choose the date of the event—always a weekend, usually in July or August—based on meteorological research around weather events and predictions for the low tide. That’s meant to allow easy attendance and building conditions for the contestants.
“The Milford Arts Council promotes arts of all kinds, even if the water’s going to wash them away in a few hours,” Brown said. “It is just a great day, it promotes family and unity. It’s peaceful. All the things we need now in the world.”
Scott (left), Logan (right), and Ava Swett (right) among their other family members, posing with their ice cream cone made of sand. Jayniel Bermudez Photo.
Huddled underneath a canopy, the Swett family gathered sand shovels and buckets to make a giant ice cream cone. Daughter Ava Swett said that the cone—apropos for the high temperatures and sun exposure of the day—had been her idea, and her family had jumped in to help. Like the nearby crocodile, rocks and shells became makeshift sprinkles on one of the ice cream scoops.
The family used a vast array of tools, including “putty knives, spades, hoes, shovels, paint brush[es], buckets,” said Scott Swett. All of these tools were incorporated into making the sculpture, showing firsthand how intricate the contest can come to be.
Scott added that the family had come from many different areas to be together for the contest. Some members are in Shelton; others live as far away as New York state.
“It’s our way of getting together,” he said.
Dan and Laura Thornton (left) standing over Sandy the Sand Witch with the rest of their family. Jayniel Bermudez Photo.
Resting on top of an elegant castle, meanwhile, was Wicked Sandy the Sand Witch, designed and structured by Hartford-based architect Dan Thornton. While Thornton designed the piece, each family member had an assigned job when creating the sculpture.
“We have some people building the sand castle, we have some people building the witch, we have some people making the moat,” said Laura Thornton, Dan’s wife. “ And we have some people making a pumpkin, a cauldron, and a broom.”
Laura called their time building the castle fun and exciting. She credited not just her husband, but a new castle building kit called the Sand Masons. The kit had helped them construct an entire sand kingdom, where Sandy could make a sun-baked home.
Among their own tools, Laura’s family also utilized materials found on the beach, including driftwood as a foot rest for Sandy.
“We used lots of shells and seaweed, and all sorts of things we found on the beach, some driftwood,” she said. “Every year, the whole family gives adventures.”
Laura described their time at the event as an adventure, and a gift. Each year, different family members “give” each other an activity that they can do together at the holidays. This continued that generous spirit.
“Me and my husband planned this, we got all the food, we did all the things, this was our gift to our family,” she said.
Wandering across the beach with micro- and megaphones in hand, announcers Brian Smith and Jack Sullivan kept attendees on their toes—and added entertainment into the day. For 20 years, Smith and Sullivan have been a part of WOWRadioCT—making them the perfect duo to keep the contest on track. Occasionally, a person could hear Smith announce the time, and how long the contestants had left to build.
“At low tide we will be doing the judging,” said Smith.
In addition to being the announcers, Smith and Sullivan help organize the event, and enforce the rules.
“We start as the tide is going out. We help organize, get people into their places. Everybody has an organized and assigned space. And we walk around, remind people of the rules.” Smith continued.
For anyone interested in the Mew Haven Cat Cafe, tickets can be purchased here. This article comes from the ninth and current cohort of the Arts Council's Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). From June 29 through August 21, YAJI students pitch, report, write and edit stories with Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman, Program Assistants Abiba Biao and Grayce Howe and Mentor Ruby Szekeres. Jay Bermudez is a rising sophomore at Eli Whitney Technical High School in Hamden.