If you attended the Greater Rochester Peep Show last weekend at the Webster Recreation Center, you not only enjoyed a tremendous display of whimsical and creative Peep sculptures, you also helped make the event the most successful ever.
“Head PEEP” Michael Grenier reports that more than 2500 people attended the Peep Show this year, coming from Webster, many surrounding towns and even as far as Buffalo. The show raised nearly $8,000 before expenses — a record amount. And that was despite the fact that the attendance, albeit strong, was still slightly less than pre-pandemic levels. That means that the people who attended didn’t just wander around and look at the displays; they bought a lot of voting tickets and snacks and entered the raffles, all raising big bucks to benefit the Webster Community Chest and 12 other charities. (Visit the Peep Show website for a whole list.)
Also helping make the show a success were the scores of volunteers who managed a thousand little details, and the more than two dozen businesses and agencies who sponsored tables and rooms and provided door prizes. (See the list here.)
The stars of the show, of course, were the displays, and they were spectacular this year.
Entries were separated into two categories, youth and adult. Community members were invited to vote for their favorite displays to determine the “Peeples Choice Winners.” The top winners in the adult category were:
- First place: “The Village at Unity,” created by Lindsay Lown
- Second place: “The Nutcracker, Sgt. Peeper,” created by Dancing With Denise
- Third Place: “March of the Peepguins,” created by Rita Menaldino
The top youth winners were:
- First place: “Advice from the Coral Reef,” created by GS Troop 60617
- Second place: “Hopping with the Peepos,” created by Lilly B and Grammy
- Thurs place: “Red Wings Stadium,” created by Rylynn C
Click here for a complete list of adults and youth winners.
This year, for the first time, the Grand Prize winner was a real surprise.
Michael wrote,
The Grand Prize winner has always been an adult. We separate our entries into two groups–one for adults (16 years of age or over) and one for children–since it would be unfair to have little kids compete with grown-ups.
But there is strength in numbers, apparently. This year’s Grand Prize winner was (the entry) made by Girl Scout Troop 60617, which is made up of 11- to 13-year-old girls. Although they had advisement and assistance from adults, the girls made all of the components of this display themselves. Each chose a sea creature to make (or two or three) and they assembled the components to make up the coral reef. Transporting the enclosure and putting it all together on site was the biggest challenge.
Troop leader Megan Thompson added, “We had such a fun time building this as a troop, creating the different sea creatures and then all of us working together to build the coral at the end of our meeting.”
Girl Scout Cadette Troop 60617 includes eight girls, ages 11 to 13. Their winning entry, “Advice From the Coral Reef,” is now on tour with 12 other displays. Their first stop is the Maplewood nursing home, where the residents are going to have their own Peep Show and vote for their favorites. After that, the displays will continue their tour at the Kirkhaven Nursing Home.
Megan Thompson From left to right is my daughter Amelia, who helps out with our troop and helped out with this project but is part of another troop, my youngest daughter Clara (she created the octopus!), and me.
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(posted 4/8/2023)
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