Thanksgiving Alert: Flying Pumpkins!

Should the threat of being invaded by marauding pirates ever become real, you can sleep easier knowing that Ambler Farm’s Kevin Meehan and his team of “Pumpkin Warriors” stand ready to defend Wilton.

Over the last two years, Meehan has culled a group of 15 dedicated teens to be part of a team that hand-built a new trebuchet—a type of catapult—worthy of launching projectiles more than 1,000 feet.

Meehan and his team of “Pumpkin Warriors” will be showing off their contraption Thanksgiving Day at 12:30 pm, by launching pumpkins in the Ambler Farm fields. The event is open to the public and visitors are being asked to bring donations for the Wilton Food Pantry and Hurricane Sandy relief.

Wilton’s Pumpkin Warriors plan on entering their catapulting creation in the World Championship ‘Punkin’ Chunkin’ pumpkin catapult competition, held yearly in Delaware and aired on the Discovery Channel every Thanksgiving night.

“Thanksgiving Day, two years ago we were launching pumpkins here with our old trebuchet. We invited a whole bunch of families and let them know about the Punkin’ Chunkin’. When we saw how excited the community was to launch pumpkins on Thanksgiving, the idea was, ‘Why can’t we go down and compete in that?’ But we knew the old trebuchet was on its last legs. It just wasn’t safe any longer,” Meehan recounted.

Meehan, Ambler Farm’s program director, also teaches science at Cider Mill, and was interested in making a program to build a new trebuchet an educational one with student participation. But first he needed to satisfy Ambler Farm’s governing board, the Friends of Ambler Farm, for why this program could be tied into the farm’s mission of promoting farming.

“For a lot of farms today, agritourism has become very important as a source for income—hayrides, the Halloween celebrations are really what hold a farm together. It’s not necessarily what we need, but that was a tie-in to satisfy the Friends—it would be a way to bring the community together at Thanksgiving Day, as well as Ambler Farm Day,” Meehan explained.

But with Ambler Farm’s board putting a financial priority on restoring the property’s White House, Meehan had to fund the program through registration fees—each student taking part paid $500 to participate.

Most of the kids on the team have either worked together previously through the Farm’s apprentice program, or have shown an interest in science, building and engineering.

“Every kid comes to the program with a different goal of what they’ll get out of it, and they come with different levels of interest. For some kids on the team, it sounded like a tremendous amount of fun and they’re excited about being on the team with their friends. For a couple other kids, it’s the design aspect and building. For some others, it’s the possibility of competing in something they’ve seen on TV for years that’s so exciting. For some it’s the math and science, for others it’s the sense of community we have here,” said Meehan.

Team member Quentin Andersen wanted the hands-on experience. “I really love building. I’ve helped build a bunch of things at the Farm, and I just wanted to be with the people on the team, to help create something with each other. And I’m a very competitive person—I like to win.”

Team captain Sarah Perlee, agreed. “I’m interested in animal science, and I had to build a chicken coop with my dad. I think that’s what started it. Over the years I’ve been working here, we’ve done a lot of building projects and I developed an interest in building that I didn’t really think I would ever have. This was an opportunity to see how a trebuchet was built and also to have the opportunity to go to Punkin’ Chunkin’s was exciting.”

The kids also had to figure out the science and math of launching projectiles, and work out all the variables—friction, pumpkin weight, timing, angles, trebuchet height and arm length, and many others. Based on the models Meehan and his crew worked out, they believe their trebuchet could take high honors at next year’s competition—but they don’t want to be too overconfident.

“The record last year was 1,100 feet, based on a model similar to ours but smaller. Our thought was that 1,200 feet would win the competition. Based on the sheer size of ours, if it threw less than 1,000 feet we would be shocked. However, the winning toss this year was 1,500 feet. We think when this is fully loaded, and we’ve solved every little variable, we think it’s very reasonable that this will throw 1,500 feet. But we don’t have anywhere in Wilton to practice a 1,500 feet throw,” Meehan explained.

Wilton’s Pumpkin Warriors were set to compete this year, but couldn’t when Hurricane Sandy squashed those plans. However, Punkin’ Chunkin’ organizers extended their acceptance to compete until November 2013. Being accepted to compete also guarantees they can enter the contest every year hereafter.

That bodes well for future participants in the program, said Meehan. “Going down to the competition, getting the team experience, seeing all the engineering—that to me is life changing and can really turn you on to a career, to see what other people have done.”

Quentin’s mom, Joyce Andersen, couldn’t be happier that the trebuchet program exists.

“Everything at Ambler Farm is unique and special for any kid to have the opportunity to be involved with. It’s not what most Wilton kids do—it’s not football, it’s not soccer, not baseball or lacrosse. With the trebuchet, not only the building of it but the understanding of the science and the mechanics of it, and putting all those pieces together—they’re learning more here than in any classroom at school. They don’t even know they’re learning! Kevin Meehan is the greatest science teacher on Earth. I’m a big fan of him and the Farm.”

One other thing adding to the cache of being a part of the Pumpkin Warrior team? The jackets, which are similar to the ones Wilton athletes wear.

“Because we want to continue doing this for years, and now that we’re in the competition, the hope is that over time, you’re going to see a lot more of these jackets in town, and people will say, ‘well what is that?’ I love that whole aspect that it will become a very cool thing to be a part of science,” Meehan said.

Ambler Farm will be accepting donations for Hurricane Sandy relief and the Wilton Food Pantry. Suggested items include personal care items (feminine hygiene products, soaps, shampoos, etc.) hand warmers, socks, and paper goods (including paper towels, napkins, toilet paper and paper plates).