Halloween pumpkins took flight by catapult and came crashing to earth, meeting their fate in a farmer’s field Sunday.
Pumpkinpalooza launched hundreds of old jack-o’-lanterns just outside Midhurst, at Pooles Road and Old Second South.
“It was cool and very fun,” said Barrie’s Natalie Martin, 10 years old, after she pulled the rope that sent her pumpkin up and then down into the field.
“It split open and went everywhere,” she said.
Kassidy Exell, 11, also from Barrie, had a similar experience.
“It was easy and really fun, how I got to launch my own pumpkin into the air,” she said, while preparing her hot dog.
Ingolf Goetz, president of the Springwater-Vespra Lions Club, said Pumpkinpalooza began about seven years ago, always on the first Sunday after Halloween.
The pumpkins are flung into the field, owed by the son of a club member, by two catapults, one wooden and built by the Lions Club and the other aluminum, donated by a Barrie business, and each with a 400-pound counterweight, Goetz said.
“The deer take care of the pumpkins throughout the winter, so they get naturally recycled,” he said. “The deer love pumpkins, they come throughout the fall and the winter, take care of whatever is out there.”
That the pumpkins smash when they’ve been catapulted into the field just makes it easier on the deer.
Goetz said Pumpkinpalooza usually attracts 500 to 600 people from the community.
“The kids get to pull the (catapult’s) trigger so they really get excited about this day,” he said. “It’s very unique. I don’t know who else does it in the area.”
There was no cover charge for Sunday’s event but the Lions Club took donations and, like all service clubs, puts the funds they raise to good use.
“We are active here in Midhurst, in Minesing,” Goetz said. “We have these fundraisers and all the donations go to local charities. We just presented yesterday, from our duck race proceeds, $7,000 to the Elmvale Food Bank. Or we do community improvements for the local trails, by fixing and repairing them.”
