Small-Scale Lighthouses Created In Newtown

Part Of

Maritime Aquarium’s Annual Festival

By Shannon Hicks

Newtown is being represented by two lighthouses in the 2011 Festival of Lighthouses Display at The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk. The tenth annual display went on view just before Thanksgiving and will remain on view — with the public being invited to vote for their favorite — until January 16.

Donna Ball and Laura McNamara collaborated on Sugar Cookie Sheffield Island. Dr Frank LaBanca and his daughters decided to create a replica of Black Rock Lighthouse. These are two of the four in this year’s collection, according to Maritime Aquarium publicist Dave Sigworth, that are based on real lighthouses. The third is Staten Island Range Light in New York, and the fourth depicts Greens Ledge, a “sparkplug” style lighthouse in Norwalk.

Twenty-four small-scale lighthouses have been placed on view around the aquarium, lighting the way through the destination’s galleries during the holiday season. The rules are kept simple, according to the aquarium, to allow for maximum creativity: Lighthouses must be three to six feet tall and have a working light, and may not include animal remains (including shells). Beyond that, it is up to the creators’ imaginations.

This year those creators have done something unusual, twice. According to Mr Sigworth, there are two lighthouses with a Harry Potter theme. There are also two that recreate different parts of the aquarium.

“One, made of gingerbread, shows the main entrance,” Mr Sigworth said this week, “and the other tries to replicate parts of the interior, some of the exhibits we have.

“It’s interesting to see those different trains of thought,” he added. “There are several entries this year that ... you just can’t believe how much thought and effort folks put into them. It’s a very cool exhibit.”

The 2011 Festival of Lighthouses collection has been created with everything from stone and the aforementioned gingerbread to toilet paper tubes and sugar cubes from France. In the case of Ms Ball and Ms McNamara, hundreds of homemade sugar cookies were used for an incredible version of the circa 1868 stone and wood lighthouse located on an island within Sheffield Harbor, off the coast of Rowayton. Sugar cookies were used to create the walls of the lighthouse, and chocolate sugar cookies were used for the roof.

“She’s my baking fool,” Ms Ball said recently of Ms McNamara, who was working on laying down icing that would eventually be added to the windows of the lighthouse. The two women were nearing the completion of their lighthouse assembly in a work space within Ms Ball’s home. “She made every cookie from scratch,” said Ms Ball, who had the idea of taking on Sheffield Lighthouse for the contest.

“I had been there, on the ferry [that runs from Norwalk to the island in Long Island Sound] with some of my summer visitors,” Ms Ball said. “When I heard about the project I thought of that lighthouse immediately. I thought that would be perfect.”

The women encountered a few challenges pretty early into their construction. The form of the lighthouse was built of foam core, to which the cookies were attached using a gluey frosting. Each cookie needed to be carved into shape, something a traditional sugar cookie does not do well with.

“They have to be tough for building, durable for construction and moving to Norwalk, and even be able to stick around until January,” Ms Ball pointed out. One of the things Ms McNamara did while tweaking her sugar cookie recipe was reduce the amount of butter in the batter, which created a much denser than normal cookie.

“The cookies were much less fragile,” said Ms Ball. “And our trials and errors meant our kids had plenty of cookies to pilfer,” she added, laughing.

Another challenge? Winter Storm Alfred, which arrived five days before entries were supposed to be delivered to the aquarium. Contest organizers quickly contacted everyone who had applied for the competition (there are 24 openings, and this year that allotment was not only filled, but another eight wannabe-lighthouse builders were put onto a waiting list) to tell them that anyone affected by the storm would receive a one-week extension. Entries were now due by November 11, which Ms Ball and Ms McNamara took advantage of.

“That really saved our bacon,” Ms Ball said last month. “Without power it was all we could do to survive. There were no time to bake or decorate.”

Once the two women got back into their lighthouse construction groove, it was full steam ahead.

“Our best moments have been while we’ve been baking, gluing, and decorating in silence,” said Ms Ball. “It’s been a very enjoyable time, very rewarding.”

Black Rock, To Scale

Like his Newtown counterparts in the Festival of Lighthouses, Frank LaBanca was inspired by a real lighthouse. Black Rock Lighthouse is about 12½ miles (as the crow flies) northeast of Sheffield Island lighthouse, on Fayerweather Island in Bridgeport. It is a nonfunctioning lighthouse, and one that is important to Dr LaBanca’s family.

“I actually used to live down there,” he said. “It’s where my family and I keep our sailboat, and where we do a lot of hiking.”

Dr LaBanca, who likes to think of lighthouses as America’s castles (“They’re neat and amazing structures that don’t have a function any more because of the way technologies have changed, but there’s something about their beautiful majesty. They represent America’s culture, and the link to the past, especially the maritime history,” he said), decided to create a work that is very close to scale for the Aquarium.

The LaBancas — Frank and his daughters Anna, 9, and Maggie, 7 — spent between 60 and 70 hours working on their lighthouse. They primarily used wood, a little bit of plastic, and Life Savers on their 4½ -foot-tall structure.

“We designed the windows to look like stained glass,” he explained, “but they are already melting. We’ve received a call and have to go back to the aquarium to fix that.”

For Dr LaBanca, whose does program development with Education Connection, it was important to him that his daughters incorporate some of the same science, technology, engineering, and mathematics that their father incorporates into his work.

“They did measuring and painting, and some of the math associated with creating a scale model,” said Dr LaBanca. “If you look at a picture of the actual lighthouse and compare it to ours, they really look like each other. Even to the rows of bricks, we have the same number.

“It’s very, very close to the original,” he added. “The kids got a real charge out of that.”

While the LaBancas did not need a lot of the extra time they were granted through the extension, they did deliver their lighthouse on November 6, two days after the original contest deadline.

“We didn’t have power all that week, but I worked out of the garage and we really didn’t need a lot of that extra time,” he said. “We made it work.”

The two dozen lighthouses are spread out so that visitors find them as they tour through the aquarium. A poster with photos of all 24 lighthouses and a ballot box is waiting for visitors once they finish touring.

“Everyone who comes through, pretty much, has stopped to cast a ballot,” said Dave Sigworth. “It’s been interesting to hear families debating their favorites.

This year’s top prize is a $1,500 award, a 50 percent increase over the top prize of previous years as part of the competition’s one-decade anniversary. Other prizes are $750 for second place, $375 for third, $300 for fourth, $225 for fifth, and $150 for sixth.

Voting continues until January 16. The winners will be announced on January 19, and a reception will be held that evening for builders, family, and friends to celebrate the conclusion of the festival.

While winning an award would be nice, it was all about the challenge, said Donna Ball.

“Why do this?” said the freelance illustrator. “I can’t say No to a fun project.”

The Maritime Aquarium is at 10 North Water Street in Norwalk; call 203-852-0700 or visit MaritimeAquarium.org for directions, admission fees, and other information. The aquarium is open daily from 10 am to 5 pm. (It will be closed on Christmas.)

Visit NewtownBee.com and find this story under the Features tab, where additional photos of the Newtown-based entries have been posted.