Kids take top honors in Sunzilla & Green Monster contest
September 14 2025 | By Lisa ScagliottiTwo laid-back young gardeners took top honors on Thursday in Waterbury Rotary’s 32nd annual Hunt for Sunzilla and the Other Green Monster contests held at Rusty Parker Memorial Park.
Measuring 11.75 feet tall (141 inches), Owen Streeter’s sunflower was crowned Sunzilla 2025. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
The fall event can be a bit of a wildcard with entrants just showing up at the appointed time each September and this year was no different. At 5 p.m., a crowd gathered with kids and adults navigating multiple sunflower entries to the park lawn alongside the sunflower banners.
Several Harwood Rotary Interact Club students joined Rotarians in the judging as they measured each sunflower from roots to blossoms. Other scrutiny involved severing the flower heads from their stalks and weighing them as judges recorded the details to determine the winners in several categories.
When all was tallied, Moretown youngster Owen Streeter’s sunflower that measured 141 inches tall was crowned Sunzilla.
“We just let nature grow it,” Owen said, when asked if he took any special care of his sunflower as it sprouted this summer.
“We’re plant-and-surprise gardeners,” his mom, Amanda Streeter quipped.
Juniper and Maverick Hardie came in second place with their sunflower, a variety with multiple blossoms; preschooler Billy Frier’s ranked third.
Two other categories were flower weight and size measured by diameter. Rachel Babin’s 5.6-pound sunflower head was the heaviest in the bunch; Avie Roscioli’s came in second. For size, Rowan Butler’s 14.5-inch sunflower head measured largest across, followed by Will and Jack Lewis’ flower in second place, and Hallie Nelson’s in third.
The corollary part of the contest seeks out presumably the largest zucchini in the area, although it’s billed as the hunt for the “Other Green Monster.”
Waterbury 5th grader Annika Hackett had an entry from her garden that locked down that prize. Her super-sized squash tipped the scale at 40.2 pounds. While remarkable, it didn’t endanger the contest’s record set in 2022 when Ron Scholtz’ green monster weighed in at 58 lbs. 4 oz.
Annika Hackett and the winning Green Monster. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Annika said her contest entry was just one of several similar-sized vegetables growing from store-bought seeds planted in her family’s garden this summer. In this case though, she suspected her specimen was a bit of a hybrid, “a cross between a butternut squash and a watermelon,” she theorized. Several are still growing, and her family has already harvested one that resembled a butternut on the inside, but had a distinct flavor. “It tasted like cantaloupe,” she said.
As for what helped this mystery monster get so gargantuan, Annika shrugged and replied, “Chicken poop.”
In second place for Green Monster honors was a respectably long zucchini entered by Billy Frier.
Not over until there’s seed-spitting
The annual Sunzilla celebration is not complete without the sunflower seed-spitting contest. Five of the 12-and-under set came forward to take organizer John Malter’s challenge to spit seeds for both distance and accuracy as several Rotarians stood by ready with measuring tapes.
After a brief practice round, they each had several tries to spit their seeds into the target that used a hula hoop and a pie plate.
Jack Lewis claimed top honors for distance, spitting a seed 132 inches; Annika Hackett won for accuracy, getting a seed within 13 inches of the target.
Prizes for the various winners included gift certificates, birdfeeders and black sunflower seeds to fill them, from Evergreen Gardens, Waterbury True Value Hardware and Woodstock Farmer's Market. Rachel Babin of Goldenrod Design made a custom fresh-flower crown for the Sunzilla winner and Bette Ann Libby painted a new contest art banner for the event.
Malter thanked all of the participants and the parents who helped transport entries, along with the student and Rotarian judges for the event.
He promises a new crop of sunflower seeds to be distributed next spring as part of the Rotary’s annual Arbor Day observance that includes planting trees at local schools and sending students home with sunflower seeds to plant.
Decked out in sunflower-themed apparel from head to toe, the veteran Sunzilla organizer beamed as he took in the scene. “I’m having more fun than the kids,” he said.
Sunzilla 2025 contestants and their entries. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti