Editorial - October 2003

The premiere of the Pumpkin Festival

Published October 31, 2003

A place called Pumpkin Center should do something with pumpkins. And what better time to do that than Halloween?

Seems like somebody would have thought of a Pumpkin Festival for Pumpkin Center a long time ago. But it just happened this year, and the idea came from somebody young enough to see the logic — a 13-year-old.

“I thought the name Pumpkin Center had a funny name to have no pumpkins,” said Pumpkin Center’s Jazmine Jubenville. “So I decided to plan a pumpkin festival.” That wasn’t the only good idea that occurred to Jazmine. She decided that money should be raised at the event and given to the Pumpkin Center Volunteer Fire Department.

“They are volunteers and they don’t get paid for what they do,” she said in an interview last week. Helping her organize the event were friends Kayla and Haley Childress and Myra Matthews.

The festival was held Saturday at the Pumpkin Center Community Center. The event included horses and hay rides, with several children coming dressed in costumes. It was a modest turnout, we hear. But it was a beginning.

The event raised $200 for the fire department, but the importance of this event is that it started a new tradition for Pumpkin Center that is likely to continue for many years.

 From modest beginnings, great festivals grow and grow. Consider the Lincoln County Apple Festival, started in 1972 at the suggestion of Home Economics Agent Melinda Houser. About 300 people attended the first event, held at Boger City Methodist Church. Today the annual event attracts thousands.

Jasmine and her friends might think about adding more events, maybe a scare crow contest and a pumpkin “weigh-in.” Keep improvising this festival and one day Pumpkin Center will be on that list of must-go festivals.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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