It’s a beautiful afternoon in Gulf Shores, all blue sky and white sand and waves lapping at the shore. The beach is dotted with sunbathers and swimmers. Nearby, someone flies a colorful kite. Two Blue Angels planes fly over the water en route to Pensacola, where they’re practicing.

Just another day at the office for Janel Hawkins, a Gulf Shores native who has parlayed her love for the outdoors and her creativity into a business. She owns Sand Castle University, and on this day she is helping one of her five instructors, Katelyn Bennett, in a 101-level class.

“You can’t beat this office,” says Hawkins, who sports short brown hair with a curly blond mohawk, a great tan and mirrored sunglasses.

Hawkins and Bennett have hauled a cart loaded with buckets and other equipment through the sand to meet the Hall family from Austin, Texas, who are staying at a condo across the street for a week of vacation.

“This was the only thing my wife specifically planned before we left Texas,” says Adam Hall, who is here with his wife, Kristin, their three children, his parents and his sister.

Instructor Katelyn Bennett shows a family from Texas how to start making sandcastles. (Michelle Matthews / This is Alabama)

The family members have been hanging out on the beach, their three tents providing some shady respite from the sun since 9:30 this morning. It’s now 2 in the afternoon, and their sandcastle-building class is starting.

Bennett has placed eight five-gallon buckets with their bottoms removed into a circle – one for each member of the family. These will be the forms for their individual sandcastles.

As everyone will soon learn, it takes a lot of sand and a lot of water, added in layers and patted down, to make a castle firm enough to stand. They fill their buckets with sand, then water, stirring with plastic shovels “like churning butter,” Bennett instructs. More sand, more water, then they do “doggie digs” with their hands, “like making biscuit dough.”

“Water is glue to keep our sandcastles strong and sturdy,” she tells them.

Next, the eight students gather around to watch Bennett demonstrate how to make the various parts of a castle. She pulls colorful tools out of a bin, making crenellations, those teethlike elements at the top, with knife cuts, a balcony with a spatula, spoons for the windows and doors, and a brush to clean and smooth the sand. She even uses a biodegradable straw to carefully remove fine bits of sand from the cobblestones she carves around the base.

“Never touch your castle with your fingers,” she advises.

When it’s time for the students to flip their buckets and reveal their forms, three of the castles collapse a bit — all belonging to adults, including Adam, an engineer. Soon, Bennett has helped them fix their structural issues, and each person starts working on his or her own castle.

“This is really a therapeutic activity for people,” Hawkins says. “Everyone is on the same playing field, learning together on vacation with their family at the beautiful beach.”

Christopher, 10, cuts windows into his sandcastle on the beach in Gulf Shores. (Michelle Matthews / This is Alabama)

Hawkins started Sand Castle University in 2017. A first-generation Southerner whose family is from Illinois, she says she was “an overconfident 22-year-old when I started this.” Though she grew up in Gulf Shores, she didn’t learn the art of sand sculpture until she went to college in Florida and got a job working for a professional sand-sculpting company.

Just before her senior year, she “blew up my life,” she says, dropping out of school and returning to the Alabama coast to start her own mobile sandcastle business. She brings her know-how and tools to meet groups on the beaches in front of their vacation rentals or at public beaches to teach them the basics of what she considers to be “a dying art.”

“I’m keeping it alive,” she says.

After just a couple of seasons, the COVID pandemic hit. But her small business was one of the few that benefited in 2020. “We were the only activity people could do,” Hawkins says, since it’s done outside with no contact. “We’ve been booming ever since.”

Sand Castle University’s territory now stretches from Pensacola to Fort Morgan, with plans to expand to Dauphin Island next year. In addition to hosting classes year-round for up to 15 people, Hawkins and her junior sculptors also do commission work at events like Hangout Festival as well as wedding proposals, birthdays and anniversaries.

As creative as she is, Hawkins is all business when it comes to her stats and future goals. “We have a 35% return clientele rate,” she says. “I’ve got 22 families who are in their fourth year with me.” Her five-year plan is to host a sand-sculpting competition in the area.

“I like to think the quality of sand art in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach has risen,” she says as she and Bennett pack up efficiently, tiptoeing around the eight castles now standing in the sand.

As she takes photos of the students posing with their creations, Hawkins hands out Sand Castle University magnets to put on the fridge in the family’s condo. Kristin is already thinking they might be able to work in another session later in the week — maybe a 201-level class that lasts for two hours. Perhaps they’ll build sea serpents this time.

Meeting people like the Halls is another perk of her job, Hawkins says. “You get to become part of their family vacation.”

This story was previously published by This is Alabama. Want to read more good news about Alabama? Sign up for the This is Alabama newsletter here.