Those that know me well know I am from Maine and that I love the state dearly although I have not lived there for almost 20 years.  This website shows you one of the the things I love about the state.  It’s a spirit, creativity and sense of fun paired with hard work that is rare.  The town of Bethel, Maine for the sake of publicity for their town built a giant snowman in 1999 that became the world’s record for snowmen.  Then they sat back to see who would break the record.  No one did.  Last winter they had record breaking snowfall and decided that was the incentive to break their own record.  You gotta love those Mainiacs!

Thus was the beginning of Olympia, the world’s largest SnowWoman.  Standing 122 feet tall and weighing an estimated 13 million pounds, she was the labor of love of an entire community.  She was adorned with hat, scarf, necklace and 30 foot spruce trees for arms.  You really need to see the pictures and check out the eyelashes.  The builders had a nice sense of humor. 

What I love about this story is how it shows the work ethic of the true Mainer – I don’t know too many places where people would be willing to stand inside a giant structure in order to shovel and pack snow.  Hard work for sure.  Another piece of this story that I love is that it is an example of someone thinking way outside the box and it working.  The project was the brainchild of the local Chamber of Commerce and Olympia became a tourist attraction for the month’s of her life.  The building process and the size of the project received press attention from all over the world and the Bethel area and its Chamber of Commerce benefited greatly.  As you are doing your own business planning, take a cue from those crafty Mainiacs and take a calculated step out of the box.    

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