Great Pumpkin Roll readied
A unique community fundraiser will see a dump truck load of pumpkins roll down Locust Street.
Butler Catholic School is inviting the community and school families to The Great Pumpkin Roll from 3 to 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at the school.
Those attending will adopt a pumpkin, decorate it if they wish and cheer for their specimen as it careens down Locust Street hill in a race to its grisly demise against a concrete barrier at South Monroe Street.
Kathy Dudley, director of development at Butler Catholic, said the owner of the first gourd down the hill will receive a prize.“We were looking for something fun that families could participate in this year,” Dudley said of the inaugural event.She said the event will serve as a fundraiser for the school, which had to cancel its annual Winter Wonderland Dinner and Auction as well as its Steelers Raffle because of the coronavirus pandemic.“This is not only new to Butler Catholic, but to our knowledge no event like this is being held in our entire region,” Dudley said.The Great Pumpkin Roll will also include raffle baskets, many of which were created by the school's individual classrooms.Food trucks will be available for snacks, sandwiches, full meals and sweet treats, Dudley said.The unsuspecting pumpkins are being grown in a pumpkin patch in an empty lot on the south side of the school building at Cross and St. Paul streets.Dudley said the students planted the pumpkin seeds and cared for the garden as it grew all summer.On Tuesday, Dudley warned Maria Cosme's third-grade class not to step on the vines as they entered the pumpkin patch to observe the growth of the hearty specimens within.The students obeyed, leaping over vines in what appeared to be a game of pumpkin hopscotch.
“I feel like a ninja right now,” said Abby McGrath, a third-grader who effortlessly leaped with her peers from one bare spot in the garden to another.Abby declared the school's first pumpkin patch project “awesome.”“I learned there are lots of vines and flowers and bugs,” she said. “It's very nice. I love it.”Her classmate, Nathan Gilkey, also sprang between plants so as not to squash a pumpkin vine. He learned a lot about pumpkins during the growing and harvesting seasons.“There are a lot of baby pumpkins and a lot of big pumpkins, and it's really nice to see how pumpkins can grow with all those vines around them,” Nathan said.He said the pumpkin patch was a great addition to the school.“I appreciate it because now I can come and look at them with my mom and dad,” Nathan said.Dudley said 60 pumpkins already have been harvested for The Great Pumpkin Roll and 20 to 30 more will be picked before the event.She said those rooting on their pumpkins will stand along the curbs on Locust Street after the dump truck releases them, so they don't roll into the neighbors' yards.“Everyone will line up down the street, so if a pumpkin starts to veer off course, an attendee will gently nudge it back into the street,” Dudley said with a chuckle.“There is going to be laughter, and I think we all need that,” she said.<iframe width="100%" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y4klLdYji-M" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>Perfect Touch Landscaping will be on hand with a skid loader to clean up the remains of the pumpkins after the race.“It's our first Pumpkin Roll,” Dudley said. “We don't know what to expect.”She said all who attend are required to wear a mask in an abundance of caution against COVID-19.“We are glad to have an entire city block and parking lot and grass field down below, so there is lots of room for people to spread out,” Dudley said.The Great Pumpkin Roll will be held rain or shine.“We are excited to be bringing something fun and different to Butler,” Dudley said. “It's just going to be a fun, relaxing afternoon.”
