A Ridgefield man’s Lego®-themed lighthouse is the first-place winner in the 15th annual “Festival of Lighthouses Contest” at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.
Nick Parker takes home $1,500 for receiving the most votes from Aquarium visitors for his entry, “LEG-lobe.” Parker is a contest regular who received “runner-up” money in 2007, 2008 and 2011, but this is his first time winning the top prize.
Lego figures figure prominently in “LEG-lobe,” with an entire winter scene – complete with Lego figures, houses, a Christmas tree, a snowman and a lighthouse, of course – inside a big clear plastic globe. Santa and two other figures ice skate around a pond. The whole snowy scene sits perched atop a big red block shaped like a Lego piece.
The Aquarium’s holiday lighthouse display ran from Nov. 19 to Jan. 16, and featured 13 large model lighthouses built by local artists, students and hobbyists. The contest’s winners are chosen by Aquarium visitors, who enjoy the lighthouses in the Aquarium galleries and then vote for their favorite. More than 6,700 votes were tallied in this most recent display, which – as always – attracted a collection of widely creative works.
At a Jan. 19 ceremony at The Maritime Aquarium, prizes also were awarded to three runners-up from the paper-ballot voting:
• second place ($750) – “Cork Island Lighthouse” by Carolina Fontes of Stratford.
• third place ($300) – “National Lighthouse” by Jo Stecker of Norwalk.
• and fourth place ($150) – “Minion Point” by Charlie Kestler and Roy Glover of Shelton, with Connor Rieve of Bethel.
An additional $500 prize was awarded to “Minion Point” and Kestler, Glover and Rieve for getting the most votes in a separate “Facebook Favorite” vote conducted online Jan. 1-16.
“We congratulate the winners, and thank all the contestants whose creativity added a fun and festive cheer to The Maritime Aquarium through the holiday season,” said Tina Tison, the Aquarium’s marketing director. “Because of them, our guests were the real winners.”