snowman

BETHEL, Maine USA The world's tallest snowman is no man.

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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

being from a snowflake pendant that's 6 feet

long.

Some of the volunteers who built it…

"She's a beauty. Got to love those eyelashes," said Robin Zinchuk, executive director of the local chamber of commerce and a chief instigator of the town's offbeat project.

"What does Bethel, Maine, do when it gets tough? We build a snowman!" said Marc Bancroft to the muffled applause of mittens and gloves clapping

together.

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.

Last year's Angus King.

Angus was certified as the world's tallest snowman by the Guinness Book of Records. It remains to be seen if Olympia will get the nod as tallest snowman, or snowwoman. There's currently no separate

category for snowwoman, so residents are petitioning for one.

"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.

"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.

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.

It was built with a series of concentric circles. The crane dumped the

snow into frames, and volunteers climbed in shoveling and packing the snow.

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.

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.

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.

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"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.

"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."

Her "carrot" nose, painted by schoolchildren, is 8 feet long. Her eyes are made from giant wreaths.

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.

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."