October 4, 2000
Candy competitors
Munson Community Health Center employees host Gummi Olympics 2000
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
What started two years ago as a silly game of tossing candy over cubicle walls evolved this fall into something beyond their wildest imaginings.
From their whimsical flinging of Gummi bears and Gummi worms, co-workers Kay Zimmer and Scott Goggon, both employees of the Munson Community Health Center's Outpatient Physical Therapy and Rehabilitative Services office, began putting their 'athletes' into competitions. They made a few scenarios modeled after winter Olympics events, which were being held at the time, putting their gummy competitors through their paces.
"We did this for the Winter Olympics two years ago, just as a joke between us," Zimmer said. "We had so much fun we decided to open it up to others."
From this playful beginning, Gummy Olympics 2000 was born. Featuring gummy-scale models of many Olympic events - from equestrian events to basketball to track and field to gymnastics - Gummy Olympics 2000 included nearly 20 entries from members of the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitative Services staffs.
Before the competition began, Zimmer compiled a list of Olympic events that would lend themselves to a gummy reproduction. Staff members signed up as individuals or in teams to depict an event. Zimmer arranged that entries would come in throughout the two weeks of the real Olympics in Sydney.
"We issued four gummy bears and four gummy worms to each team, the rest was up to them," Goggon said. "It started out just for staff and we displayed the entries in our offices. But after a day or two people kept bringing their patients into the offices to see them and we decided to move it into the gym."
The gummy medium did not dampen anyone's creativity. Each team depicted their event as realistically as possible, including sand in the long jump, a cinder track for the 100-yard dash and miniature rings or a trampoline for gymnastics events. The equestrian entry included horses and the fencing had plastic swords.
Many of the Gummy Olympics 2000 events also featured crowds, flags, judges and signs; some girl gummies sported pigtails and winners had gold medals. Countries such as Bearsylvania and Wormania fielded athletes, whose names included Anna Bearicova, Venus Bearwilliams and Mary Jo Bearnandez.
"People did a great job on being real creative, as far as use of their gummies and depiction of their events," said Goggon, who noted that the winning entry won a Gummi bear watch. "The details were wonderful."