SKOWHEGAN — Six inches of surprise new snow on Friday and help from some community volunteers made for idyllic conditions Saturday for the popular Box Sled Derby Race, in which children bring homemade cardboard boxes fashioned into snow sleds to race for prizes and trophies at Lake George Regional Park.

The race and ice fishing derby on the lake were all part of the 24th annual winter carnival and fishing derby at Lake George.

Creativity was the key in the derby Saturday — creativity and spectacular crashes, in which the children race, tipping and slipping down the man-made hill of snow, cushioned along the way with hay bales and help from the local Boy Scout Troop 403.

There were tractors, bulldozers and trucks, along with princess racers, a wedge of Swiss cheese, a Three Blind Mice sled and a king-size toilet complete with cardboard flush and real toilet paper.

Sadie Hanna Ellis, 6, of Skowhegan was all dressed in purple and blue with the sled decked out in princess crowns and jewels in Elsa’s Palace, from the Disney movie “Frozen.”

“I like Elsa, so I wanted to make an Elsa castle,” she said.

There was a Ninjago Lego ninja sled and one sled truck covered in Lay’s potato chip bags.

There were 37 entrants, down from 40 last year. Park Director Jeff McCabe said people hesitated to make cardboard box sleds this year because of the lack of snow. Some years, he said, there are more than 100 racers.

“We brought in snow,” said McCabe, who is in his last year of park director. “Peter Clark came out with a front end loader and actually moved any piles we could find at the park. John Lynch trucked snow in from town and dumped it at the top of the hill, and Steve Spaulding came and helped move snow around with his tractor.

And yesterday, what a gift to get this natural snowfall.”

Winners in the Box Sled Derby, according to event coordinator David Daigneault, a Boy Scout leader and Skowhegan police officer, were:

• Twyla Wagg in her Phoenix bird sled, won the award for Most Creative.

• Acelinn, Kyla and Brianna Davis in their Three Blind Mice box sled won the award for Best Looking.

• There were two winners for Best Crash — Richard Snowman, in his Humvee sled, and Andrew Robinson, in his diesel truck sled.

• There also were two winners for Longest Slide — Mason Blodgett in Mason 55, and Jaiden Hebert in a sled named Truck.

McCabe said the ice was still about a foot thick for the ice fishing derby Saturday.

Winners in the ice fishing were:

• Jerry Wacome, first place in the trout category.

• Todd Carter, first place for bass.

• Steven Clark, first place for pickerel.

• Nick Poulin, first place for white perch.

• Cooper Bowley, first place for yellow perch.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow

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