Gear up for some fun in the sun during Pentwater Homecoming Sand Sculpture Contest.

Gear up for some fun in the sun during Pentwater Homecoming Sand Sculpture Contest.

PENTWATER — Pentwater’s annual summer celebration, Homecoming, is back this year after a hiatus in 2020 due to COVID-19.

This year’s Sand Sculpture Contest Aug. 13 will draw dozens of teams that are now beginning to organize and plan this year’s design.

Trophies will be awarded to 21 teams whose entries are judged to best reflect Pentwater’s 2021 Homecoming theme: “Life is Better at the Lake.”

This year’s annual contest is the 48th to be held at Charles Mears State Park in Pentwater since the late Al Ringquist spearheaded the first event in 1974. The Pentwater Service Club has sponsored the contest for many years.

Competitors sculpt in sand using water spritzers, shovels, buckets, watering cans, spoons, putty scrapers, brushes, trowels, butter knives, drinking straws and pieces of aluminum flashing.

Teams are assigned to either one of four age group categories: 1-7, 8-9, 10-12, 13 and over (determined by the age of the oldest youth) or one of three family categories A-C.

The finished works are judged on four criteria: adherence to this year’s Homecoming theme, creativity, attention to detail, and neatness. Sculptures in the damp sand can only be decorated with naturally-uprooted dune grass, feathers and drift wood found on the Mears State Park beach. Judges will ignore any decorating items that are foreign to the beach, as well as any just-pulled dune grass because it protects the shoreline from erosion.

Free registration at the state park pavilion begins at 8 a.m. Just show up, register, and start sculpting. Teams sculpt between 8 and 11 a.m., when judging begins and the public comes to view the sculptures. There is a short awards program at noon when trophies are awarded.

Free parking is available at Charles Mears State Park for anyone with a State of Michigan Recreation Passport. For more information, check out the Pentwater Sand Sculpture Contest community page on Facebook, or call ‪313-498-0155‬.

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