Fund-raiser to feature miniature lighthouses

PORTLAND – Ten-foot tall lighthouses will start popping up from Wells to Brunswick in May.

Artists are decorating nearly 70 of the fiberglass lighthouses as part of Lighthouses on Parade, a community arts project that will raise money for a number of organizations.

Tatia DiChiara of South Portland gave human form to her two lighthouses.

The one sponsored by the Portland Pirates ice hockey team depicts a goalie outfitted with stick, leg pads and gloves. Instead of a dome atop the lighthouse, DiChiara topped her creation with a helmet.

DiChiara’s other lighthouse, sponsored by a vitamin supplement company, is a muscle man holding a barbell.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” DiChiara said Monday, as she delivered her goaltender lighthouse to the armory in South Portland, where the completed lighthouses will be assembled. “It’s amazing to me all the different ideas you can come up with on a project like this. We all start with the same basic concept and we go from there.”

In some cases, sponsoring companies provided artists with a theme. Sometimes, the artists came up with a concept and executed the work.

Lovell artist Roger Williams painted happy cows on a lighthouse sponsored by Oakhurst Dairy. Summer-sky constellations, including a cow jumping over the moon, decorated the dome.

Williams’ theme: Portland Herd Light. “I love puns,” the retired advertising executive explained.

The lighthouses will be photographed for publicity material that will be circulated in the spring and summer, according to Patty Freeman, a sales manager with the production company that is organizing the campaign.