Worlds Tallest Snowman!

World's Tallest Snowman Made In Maine
By David Sharp, Associated Press
BETHEL, Maine

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

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 bling from a snowflake pendant that's 6 feet long.

It took more than a month, dozens of volunteers and tons of snow to create "Olympia" the giant snowman . Jim Sysko, a civil engineer, oversaw design and construction.

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.

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.

With the temperature in single digits, several hundred people including busloads of school children turned out for Friday's dedication of the 122-foot-tall mountain of snow.

Her "carrot" nose, painted by schoolchildren, is 8 feet long. Her eyes are made from giant wreaths.
She was built with a series of concentric circles. The crane dumped the snow into frames, and volunteers climbed in for long hours shoveling and packing the snow.

"People love it. With all this snow, we did something good with it."