Butler Armsden was delighted to participate in LEAP’s Annual Sandcastle Contest this fall, for the 7th year in a row, along with our partners Geoff DeSousa Interior Design, Forde Mazzola Associates, and Strandberg Engineers. Together, we are the proud winners of the award for Best Site Sign for our 7-foot-tall camel that was created by Plant Architectural Woodworks. We are grateful to our generous donors who contributed to our success, making us the top fundraising team with over $30,000 in donations to support LEAP-Arts in Education. This event allowed us to unleash our creativity and craft an exciting "Masterpiece in the Sand" in tune with this year’s theme. With the help of Mr. Gelfand’s class of 4th and 5th graders from George Peabody Elementary School, we recreated the Giza Necropolis complete with the three Great Pyramids and Sphinx. Following a few brainstorming sessions with the students, we were ready to pick up our shovels, pails, buckets, and carving tools, and head to Ocean beach to let the games begin.

After hours of heavy lifting, shoveling, molding and carving, we realized that we had 20 minutes of build time remaining and a whole pyramid to carve. Amidst the rush, the team managed to create the tallest of the three pyramids standing at about 7 feet just as the time drew to a close. It was an impressive feat for all of us and we were amazed at our own accomplishment. Actively participating in this event year after year and being the top fundraiser in this competition is a tremendous achievement for us, so we would like to congratulate all the invisible helping hands in addition to all the actual hands that helped build our "Masterpiece in the Sand". Thank you for your support and we look forward to working with you next year, and for years to come!