Carving Out Pumpkin Time

For those looking for The Great Pumpkin, chances are the giant gourd was at the 25th Annual Pumpkin Festival.

The yearly fall fete, whose proceeds fund school scholarships for local families in-need, has become such an integral part of the community that Wikipedia’s entry about Wilton mentions it.

“We like to say the unofficial start of fall is the pumpkin festival.  It’s good clean fun,” said Kathleen Fitzgerald, who supervises publicity for the school.

Usually several thousand people from Wilton and neighboring towns participate. Because dark skies threatened rain all morning, however, the festival was held inside the Driscoll School gymnasium on Saturday rather than at Merwin Meadows.  Still, children delighted in the pony rides and in the chance to pet ducks and bunnies.

A gigantic pumpkin garbed in a witch’s hat greeted people as soon as they passed through the school doors.  An indoor pumpkin patch along a hall stood in for a farmer’s field.  And festive Mylar balloons floated along the ceiling.

“It’s a major undertaking,” said Margret Greene, the pumpkin patch coordinator.  Greene, a mother of four, was there with her husband and has children who attend the nursery school.

There were games aplenty, from dunk the witch to a beanbag toss.  Toddlers and tweens alike enjoyed shaking glitter on wooden cutouts in the shapes of pumpkins and spiders.  Children could find their inner Jackson Pollack via the spin art and pumpkin decorating.

The festival is the Community Nursery School’s solitary fundraiser.  But as much as the event benefits the school, which was founded in 1938, it’s also allows it to give back to the town, said Fitzgerald.

“It’s a community event. We do it for the town,” Fitzgerald said.

Everyone who attended, from the stroller set to their grandparents, showed off their Halloween spirit, donning pumpkin embroidered baseball hats and bright orange shirts.

In addition, many people involved in the festival’s set up, including staffing the spin-art or supervising the bake good tables, either went to the school or had friends who did.

“It’s a bigger time commitment than many nursery schools,” said Jonna Keefe, whose children all attended the school. “But what you get out of it in the longer term is a community of people looking out for each other.  It’s a family school. The friendships continue on.”