Fresh air, fiesty fish and fresh snow provided a bountiful backdrop for the 2008 Maine WinterFest and Chevrolet Derby held last weekend at Point Sebago and other locations in the Lakes Region.

Kicking off with a youth derby that drew more than 1,500 entrants Feb. 22, according to Tom Noonan, a festival organizer, the three days of food, balloon rides, ice racing and the chance to land the big one drew thousands of visitors.

Augusta resident Jerry Parlin, who finished second in the 2007 fishing derby, took home a new snowmobile and bragging rights by catching a 29-inch togue (lake trout) weighing more than 7 pounds.

Parlin was mum on his fishing secret when talking to producers from Up From Under Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based film company in the area to film the festival and tournament for a possible documentary.

(For more details on Parlin’s prize catch, see page 14. For details on the visit by Casco native Stacey Boucher and her colleagues at Up From Under Entertainment, see page 12.)

Raymond resident Samantha Riley did not catch a prize-winning fish, but her on-ice digs did win the award for best ice shack, netting her a gift card from Kittery Trading Post.

The winners were joined by organizations such as the Maine Children’s Cancer Fund, which raised more than $40,000, thanks to the Shaw’s Polar Ice Dip held Saturday morning.

Among the hundreds plunging into the waters of Sebago Lake were Heather Pelletier, 23, of Windham and her fianca, Brandon Jones, 26, of Limington.

The swim was the first polar dip for both, netting more than $150 for a great cause and creating memories splashy and indelible.

“Oh my God,” were the words Pelletier said first came to mind as she dove in. “It was a freezing, freezing shock. Then it was nicely numbing.”

Pelletier, who works at the Shaw’s Supermarket in Windham, said she was talked into the swim by friends at work. Jones, who works at Maine Mall Motors, did not take much more convincing.

“I’ve been swimming in the Saco River in April,” he said. “It was nothing like this.”

Those who stayed on top of the ice also had a grand time, beginning on Thomas Pond, the site of the youth fishing derby.

“It’s better than video games,” said George Lekousi of Windham. He was out on the ice bright and early with his sons Christopher, 9, and Thomas, 7 and said he liked getting them involved in outdoor activities.

“I think it’s fun, and you don’t have to stay on the dock like regular fishing,” said Christopher Lekousi. He said when fishing in the summer, anglers have to keep some distance from other people, while ice fishing lets friends hang together.

“I think it went fantastic,” said Dale Southard, who owns and operates Tailfeathers outdoor store on Route 302 in Raymond. He sold traps to the organizers at a discount and helped drill holes the morning of the kid’s derby before running back to open his store.

Noonan said representatives from the ice fishing forum IceShanty.com teamed up with members of the Windham Gorham Rod and Gun Club and drilled more than 600 holes in the ice that morning.

“They were having more fun than a barrel of monkeys,” said Bruce Andrews, club president. He said activities like fishing, hunting, camping and hiking are good for today’s youth and should be encouraged.

“Kids typically who get involved in the outdoors,” he said, “have fewer opportunities to get in trouble.”

Tommy Herring, 12, and Nadia Barry, 9, of Gorham were there with their parents Rob and Jenn Herring.

“I probably started fishing when I was their age,” said Rob Herring. His family clustered between a few holes together as they waited for their traps to spring.

“You never know which one is going to go off first,” said Tommy Herring. He said it gets dull when the fish don’t show up.

“I want something that’s going to fight back, like a trout,” he said. “I want something we can keep.”

The motorcycle and car races on the ice were big draws, and crowds flocked to the helicopter and hot air balloon rides comprising the annual fly-in.

Others were drawn to the ice and snow for artistic reasons, sculpting near the towering blocks that made up Rapunzel’s Castle and in a tent sponsored by local dentist Dr. Daniel Armstrong.

Sculptors came from Bethel and out of state as Emily White, 25, who works at Sunday River Ski Resort, carved a three-foot penguin with an electric chainsaw and rotary tools to shape finer points in the beak and wings.

Smith said she learned ice sculpting attending Le Cordon Bleu culinary school and found the WinterFest online.

Lisa Stevens of Bristol, Vt., who has been sculpting ice for 10 years, found the tent a welcome medium after creating more intricate wax carvings.

On top of a scaffold, Stevens used a sturdy ice scraper, saws and chisels to shape the head of the Big Bad Wolf from a eight-foot cylinder of snow that had been packed into a form.

“This is so clean,” Stevens said, “some of the best snow I have ever carved.”

As Stevens shaped the upper body, Kathy Dinsmore of Williston, Vt., began carving the mouth of the wolf.

“It’s all about the teeth,” she said, chipping away.

Employees from the Westbrook Shaw’s Supermarket make leaps of faith Saturday as part of the Shaw’s Polar Dip during the 2008 Maine WinterFest and Chevrolet Derby at Point Sebago in Casco. The swimmers helped raise more than $40,000 for the Maine Children’s Cancer Program.Kelly Thompson, of Limington, is fed a french fry by her husband, Grover Thompson Saturday afternoon as the couple attend the Maine Winterfest and Chevrolet Derby 2008 at Sebago Lake.Kolbie Kaeser, 19 months, of Casco, is pulled on a sled by his parents Saturday morning while attending the annual Maine WinterFest and Chevrolet Derby 2008 at Point Sebago Resort. Christopher Lekousi, 9 shows his brother George, 7, how to scoop debris out of a drilled hole in the ice. The two Windham boys participated in the youth fishing derby on Thomas Pond in Raymond last Friday. Lisa Stevens shapes the Big Bad Wolf at the ice sculpting tent at Point Sebago. A resident of Bristol, Vt., Stevens likes sculpting in ice and snow because it is a larger meduim than the wax carvings she makes during other seasons.