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Pumpkin Walk at Twilight set tonight in park
By Elise Franco
Youngstown
More than 1,000 illuminated jack-o’-lanterns will greet folks tonight as they walk the grounds of Fellows Riverside Gardens in Mill Creek Park.
Keith Kaiser, Mill Creek MetroParks horticulture director, said thousands of Mahoning Valley residents have come to the gardens for the annual Pumpkin Walk at Twilight since its inception in 2004.
Kaiser said since Thursday, dozens of volunteers and students from five local schools spent time carving 13,000 pounds of pumpkins — more than 1,000 individual pumpkins — to prepare for today’s event.
“We would never get them all carved without the volunteers’ help,” he said. “It also brings their involvement into the MetroParks.”
Rita Trio, her son Craig and 2-year-old granddaughter, Olivia, all of Austintown, were just three of the more than 30 volunteers who stopped by Thursday to carve.
“I thought this would be a really good experience for Olivia and her dad together,” Rita Trio said. “It’s fun, and you have to look for more fun in life.”
Rita said though this is the first year for carving, her family has made a tradition of attending the pumpkin walk.
“Olivia will love it,” she said. “She loves pumpkins and things that are all lit up.”
Kaiser said the event, which runs from 5:30 to 8 p.m., is the perfect way for anyone to spend a Sunday evening.
“Come into the gardens in the daylight and walk through, then go inside the [Davis Center] for some cider and cookies,” he said. “Then go back outside when it gets dark and see the pumpkins all lit up.”
Inside the Davis Center, folks also can enjoy interactive activities such as butter churning and pumpkin carving, he said. Outside at the pavilions, square dancers and the Smokin’ Fez Monkeys Jug Band will perform.
Kaiser said he expects about 5,500 people to come through and that the walk is one of the gardens’ most heavily attended events of the year.
“It’s a glowing path of all these little orange pumpkins lit with candles,” he said. “It’s really fun to look out at the rolling lands of the gardens and see them all.”
Ellen Speicher, assistant horticulture director, said autumn events always draw a crowd.
“I think jack-o’-lanterns are always popular, and this is a nice way to celebrate the fall season,” she said.