Each year St. Johns’ Barrington receives a massive delivery of pumpkins from the diocese of Navajoland which carpets our long front hill in orange from late September to Halloween, turning it into a fun fall gathering place for the whole community. The pumpkin sale always opens with a Saturday family festival called “pumpkin junction” and then the pumpkin patch is open seven days a week, 8 hours a day until Oct. 31st.
What started out as a small fundraiser has grown into something that is now as much about outreach and fellowship as it is about raising money. As I stopped into various businesses in town hanging posters this year, I became more aware of just how famous our not-so-little pumpkin patch is becoming. I got comments like, “Oh, yes, it’s that time again isn’t it?” or “I hear the pumpkins are coming early this year!”
The entire community has now come to expect that delivery truck and that “sea of orange” each fall. We have had new families join or at least return to our parish as a result, and at the very same time this is our largest fundraiser, which allows us to grow so many of our vital ministries! Now that’s called icing on the pumpkin cake!
This year many hands of all ages and sizes came together to unload the 2,489 pumpkins and set up for Pumpkin Junction. Over the next month around 120 St. Johns’ parishioners will volunteer to work a one or two hour shift in the pumpkin patch. It’s a great way to meet other parish members, and to introduce community members to the people of our parish. It is truly amazing what we can do as a collective family.
How very fortunate we are that we are actually selling a product that people really want! We have been able to sell all of our pumpkins for the last 4 years running and last year, as Halloween neared, we had customers rummaging through the rotten pumpkin pile, willing to buy anything to use for carving. At last years’ parish Halloween party, I stepped outside (fully adorned in my best gypsy costume!) to run to my car at about 8pm and was approached by a woman desperately seeking a pumpkin, which I happily sold her! Indeed, we have found our niche!
On Saturday September 25th at our Pumpkin Junction opening event we had a record-breaking sale day in the patch. There were an abundance of smiling faces as people browsed our 50 plus vendors; rode Okie’s Old Fashioned rides; rode ponies from Stony Creek farm; pet Rupert the teacup pig; ate our delicious offerings from the café; or sang, danced and played instruments with our storyteller amongst the areas finest mums and pumpkins!
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