The village of Mayville is holding its second annual sidewalk chalk contest on Saturday. Last year’s event had 31 participants and received positive feedback. Submitted photos

MAYVILLE — The village of Mayville is calling on those interested in being a sidewalk chalk artist to participate in its upcoming competition.

Mayville’s second annual sidewalk chalk contest will take place Saturday from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. on South Erie Street. Sidewalks to be decorated will be from the traffic light down to the Mayville Library on both sides of the street. Participants will pick a square of the sidewalk and label it with their number and have all day to decorate. The event is family friendly and the artwork must be appropriate.

Sorena Gilkinson, owner of Handcrafted From The Heart, co-created the event with Ariel Cartwright, owner of Mayberry Jungle. Gilkinson said the event was inspired by a similar one that a nearby village organized.

“Every so often I will go through Facebook or the internet and screenshot things that I think look neat,” Gilkinson said. “I was cleaning out my screenshots last year and saw that a village in the area had done an event similar to this, and I approached Ariel Cartwright and we both thought it was a good idea of something we could do that was fun and free for the community.”

Gilkinson said last year’s event included 31 participants. Sidewalks were covered and other local businesses donated chalk and prizes. The contest was divided into age groups and three judges went around and picked their favorites. The artwork itself stayed put for three or four weeks, Gilkinson said, long enough for the sidewalks to still be covered during the Fourth of July.

After receiving positive feedback, Gilkinson and Cartwright decided to make the event annual.

The event is run through local rock painting group #Mayville,NYRocks — which Gilkinson created in 2017 — and this year they will also be having a kick-off event with the group’s Painted Rock Snake in the Village Park. Also new this year will be snow cones available for purchase.

“It’s fun and simple and anyone can do it,” Gilkinson said of the free event.

As far as judging and prizes go, Gilkinson said it will be the same as last year.

“We have three judges that will go around together and look at the art,” Gilkinson said. “They will not know who did what, they will just see the numbers on each square. They will pick a favorite and come back and let us know what they decided and then we will call the winner.”

Gilkinson said next year’s event might be even bigger.

“We already have ideas to grow,” Gilkinson said, “but we just ask that everyone remember that this is a family-friendly event and all art must be family friendly.”

Registration for this Saturday is free and available online at https://form.jotform.com/221773637947166 up until the day of the event; interested people can also stop by Handcrafted From The Heart or Mayberry Jungle for paper registration.