Amagansett - For the 18th summer in a row the Annual East Hampton Sand Castle Contest went off without a hitch on a gorgeous first Saturday in August at Atlantic Beach. "It's really an ideal beach," said Ross Perchik, organizer of the event and head of The Clamshell Foundation, the not-for-profit organization the contest benefits. "Its got parking, bathrooms, showers and a concession stand. It's also halfway between Montauk and Southampton and there are very few beaches that have all those amenities that are also as accessible as this."

Event organizers Billy Kalbacher and Ross Perchik by the registration and judging tent on Atlantic Beach. Photos by Colin M. Graham

Starting promptly at 9 a.m., groups headed to the beach to register in one of five categories: Sand Fleas for children up to age eight (with an adult); Sand Hoppers for nine to 15 year-olds; Sand Tribes for families; Sand Shapers for adults and Sand Pros for sand castle professionals.

"I think we have just under 60 entries this year," Perchik said as he was getting ready to tally the results of the judging towards the end of the day. "This event is completely run by volunteers. We get kids from the Middle and High Schools to help with the judging and registration so they can get the community service credits they need."

In addition to the volunteer help, work by this year's featured partner Hampton & Co. and artist Dan Rizzie who designed the tee-shirt logo this year and a variety of public and private sponsors, Perchik runs the event with help from Billy and Jill Kalbacher. "My right and left arms on this event are Billy and his wife Jill. Oddly enough I'm and architect and Billy is a builder. We were born three days apart and we seem to get along real well and they've been helping out with this from the second year," said Perchik. "I wouldn't be able to do it without them that's for sure."

NYC and Yankee Stadium by Jared & Carleigh Zelman, Sophie Winter, Brian Winters and Danny Lax won third place in the Sand Fleas category.

The money raised through registration fees, sale of the tee-shirts and other donations goes towards helping a variety of charitable causes. "The things we donate to the most consistently every year is give college scholarships to graduating East Hampton seniors. We also donate food; we started out donating turkeys, but I was told that turkeys are too big for some people with small ovens so we started giving roasting chickens," Perchik explained. "Usually we give out 100 eight to 10-pound roasting chickens and last year we gave out over 300 around Christmas and Thanksgiving."

All of the donations from the event are given out by The Clamshell Foundation, which Perchik started in 1993 during the second year of the contest. "The Clamshell Foundation is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) that I started to solicit donations for these causes and this contest. Originally, up until this past year all we did was this contest but now we've branched out to the former Boys Harbor Fireworks. I did those two weeks ago and we have a separate fund set up to help families that need financial assistance and things like that."

This year's poster design used on tee-shirts as well was designed by local artist Dan Rizzie.

The whole concept for the Annual Sand Castle Contest and subsequently, The Clamshell Foundation, began while Perchik was living and working in Tulsa, Arizona. "In Tulsa they had a Sand Castle Contest on the banks of the Arkansas River, which ran through the west side of town. It was controlled by a dam run by the Army Corps of Engineers up in Kansas so a week before the contest, the Engineers would slow the outflow and drop the water level so you would have more sand," recalled Perchik. "But it's also oil country so right on the other side of the river is an oil refinery and electric power plant and they would tell people not to go in the water. I was thinking, 'how could you have a sand castle contest and not go in the water?'"

With his mother's side of the family from the area, when Perchik moved back to New York he decided to opt for the sunny beaches and crisp sea air of the East End rather than live in Manhattan. "When I came out here I found out that nobody was doing a sand castle contest and I thought 'you have all the beach in the world; people come here because of these beaches and nobody has a contest,'" Perchik exclaimed. "So I talked with some people in Tulsa and got a little logistical information and some printed material and basically adapted everything to this beach and this town. The very first year, with very little promotion or anything this beach was crowded like it is today, it was a jammed up hit."

Judging by the sheer number of people on Atlantic Beach sprinkled among a variety of sand castles, the event is still hitting a high note with the community.

Trophies were awarded for all members of each group in all five categories with first, second and third place awards as well as an Honorable Mention award and an Overall Winner.

John Maroney, Sophia Beech, Lynn Blumenfeld and Nick Beech of Hampton & Co. were on hand as the company was this year's featured partner in the 18th Annual East Hampton Sand Castle Contest.

This year Josh Brussell, Pierce Kelly, Kevin Foran, and Ben Latham took the Overall Winner award with their sculpture "The Squid and The Narwhal Whale."

First place trophies went to Madeline Fan and Ernie Antonnucci with "Sea Turtle" in the Sand Fleas category; Robert and Renee Lagarenne, and Jake Trevillion with "I'm Loving It" in the Sand Hoppers group; Tyler, Chase, Judi, and Scott with "Skull Time Bandit" in the Sand Tribes; "Great Balls of Summer" by Albert Margueritis and Mark Samules in the Sand Shapers group; and "Plan B" by Art Knapp in the Sand Pros category. Honorable Mention was awarded to Joe and Claudia Ceva, Gabrielle, Christopher, Luke and Christine Lagana for their sculpture "Atlantic Beach Idol."