Volunteers Ready to Start Building Jarrett's Castle

Snow in Friday’s forecast is no deterrent for the team of volunteers working to build Jarrett’s Castle at in Farmington. Of course, Canton resident Ed Jarrett will sculpt the 35-foot sandcastle, but people from around the region have come forward to help him design it, market it, film it and build it.

By Wednesday teams of volunteers were spreading truckloads of sand on the site, which is in the overflow parking area just passed the front gate. The sand, donated by neighbor Dunning Sand and Gravel, will be trucked over to feed the castle as it grows.

F. A. Hesketh surveyors, from East Granby, were measuring and documenting the base of the castle – a requirement for the Guinness world record. Jarrett hopes to top the record, which he made in Maine.

The project officially starts at 3 p.m. Friday, April 1, with ceremonial buckets of sand being poured whether or not there’s snow. Volunteers from Gifts of Love and New Horizons are slated to kick it off.

There will be hundreds of bucketfuls to pour, and hundreds of volunteers needed. Laura Phillips Ward, of Avon-based WardComm Public Relations suggests the effort as a great team-building event or family outing.

As of this week, the only thing Ed Jarrett has carved is the Jarrett’s Castle logo, created by Sharon Mayock, a graphic designer from Granby. Jarrett carved the logo in the front of a very solid pile of sand.

“This is great sand,” Jarrett said, explaining that it’s a grade that has been washed once. “It has some of the clay but not all of it – it’s got just enough to hold it together.”

Trampled underfoot, the sand is very fine, he said, with not just crushed rock but all of the trees, leaves and organic material left from the ice age. But it’s inclined to stick together with very strong bonds – especially when packed together, he said.

Packing the sand is part of the process of getting a 35-foot sandcastle to stay together. Buckets of sand will be dumped into forms, made with lumber donated by Sanford & Hawley, and packed down. Once one layer is filled and packed, the next is started. Once the sand is packed, the forms are removed and Jarrett will begin sculpting from the top down.

“The form is all wood and it goes up like scaffolding,” Ward said. “Ed likes to think of it as a gigantic upside-down bucket.”

Volunteers will build the forms and pack in the sand for most of April and Jarrett will carve for most of May.

Rich Wright Productions in Granby has volunteered to film the process and create a documentary. The video team of Rich Wright and Michelle Leibovitz got involved with the project after talking to Jarrett. Leibovitz lives at Farmington Woods in Avon, where Jarrett is director of golf and clubhouse operations.

Wright said the amazing stories involved in the project drew him in.

“We thought it was a great opportunity to do a crazy documentary about something very visual and fun with a lot of storylines to it – saving Walton Pond, the Special Olympics… it’s just a great story,” he said.

Save Walton Pond, Connecticut Special Olympics, Gifts of Love, New Horizons and the Connecticut Children’s Cancer Program are the main beneficiaries of the event.

Dunning Sand & Gravel, Sanford & Hawley, WardComm Public Relations, Rich Wright Productions, Sharon Mayock, The Farmington Field Club, Trails End Water Gardens, Kostin, Ruffkess Foundation, Inc. and Flaggstead Smokehouse BBQ Restaurant are among its sponsors.

The list of volunteers is growing every day, Ward said. To get on it visit jarrettscastle.com.