BETHEL - The world's tallest snowwoman seemed to stand a little taller Friday.

"With a little imagination, a small town can accomplish great things," Roger Beaudoin, president of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce, told the crowd at the dedication ceremony from his perch some 20 feet up on a layer of the snowwoman.

Hundreds of residents, as well as out-of-state visitors, stood in the long, cold shadow of the snowwoman to participate in the historic hour-long festivities held in near zero-degree temperatures under a brilliant morning sun.

"What does Bethel, Maine do when the going gets hard? They say let's go build a snowman," said Mark Bancroft, of Bancroft Contracting, one of the partners, with the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce, in the giant structure's construction.

With a bright red scarf, red hat and ski eyelashes, the 122-foot, 1-inch sculpture named Olympia SnowWoman, after U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, tops Bethel's previous Guinness World Record set in 1999. Its previous creation, a snowman named Angus, King of the Mountain, after former Maine Gov. Angus King, was 113 feet, 7 inches tall. "Angus" didn't melt until June 10 of that year.

"I have to say, I've joked that it's just my luck I'd have a world record breaking monument named after me, and it will be gone by summer," said Sen. Snowe in a letter read by her representative Diane Jackson of Oxford. "Yet another reason for me to keep up the fight against global climate change, I guess. Although judging by the size of it, it might easily make it well into August!"

The nearly month-long construction of the snowwoman was the result of a communitywide effort involving everyone from business people to local area schoolchildren.

"We did the hat," said Mountain Valley Middle School sixth-grader Amanda Donahue proudly of the red fleece creation. It took two weeks to put it together with the help of family consumer teacher Lorraine Tanguay of the Mt. Valley Middle School.

Donahue and representatives of each class in the school were bused to the site Friday morning along with other Bethel students, and students from Woodstock and Andover. Each had participated in some way with the construction of the mammoth lady.

The bright orange nose was made by many of the younger school children. "We all put our hands in it," said Queda Billings, secretary of the Woodstock Elementary School of the prominent facial feature that was framed in chicken wire.

Olympia also wears a 6-foot, 80-pound pendant of mica made by local jeweler Jim Mann and has arms of 30-foot spruce trees with bangles of golden Christmas glitter.

"The goal was to capture the people's imagination," said Steve Lyons of the state's Office of Tourism. "The snowwoman showcases all Maine has to offer."

Many people came early to get their first glimpse of the woman and take group pictures on her base.

"I missed seeing Angus. I had to come see her. She's kind of pretty," remarked Pat Curtis of Harrison who attended Gould Academy in Bethel about 58 years ago. She said she loved the eyelashes as she looked 122 feet up to see the skis framing the eyes of Olympia.

Robin Zinchuk, executive director of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce, said the feat would not have been accomplished without the participation of so many. "If it was not for the volunteers this wouldn't have happened," she said of the scores of volunteers, including those who came simply to "shovel and stomp" the snow as each layer went up.

Getting the snow to build the snowwoman was never a problem this season. Alex Kaufman of Sunday River Ski Resort said the snowwoman was a double blessing for the area.

"Angus didn't bring us squat for snow. It seems it depended on a woman to get this done," said Kaufman, who has measured 181 inches of fallen snow at the ski resort so far this season.

"They say it will just melt away," said Jim Sysko, chief engineer and supervisor of the project. "They never really go away. It will always be with us."

As the dedication ended, someone in the crowd started singing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland," which includes the lyrics "in the meadow we will build a snowman"