Great Pumpkin contest draws crowds in Boardman Carving out tradition

October 17, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

BOARDMAN

With excited eyes as wide as the brim of a witch’s hat, 5-year-old Logan Grizinski watched as the top was lifted from the pumpkin he would soon carve into a jack-o-lantern.

But the childlike anticipation soon changed to apprehension as he peered into the topless gourd and saw the stringy, gooey mess that needed to be removed before the carving could commence.

“Uh, no. Too gross,” the tyke said to Cathy Grizinski, his grandmother. “You can do that part.”

With a laugh and a roll of her eyes, Cathy obligingly pulled out the sloppy insides so her grandson could get to work.

The Grizinskis of Boardman were just two of the hundreds of people at Boardman Township Park for the annual Great Pumpkin Carve-Out contest Sunday afternoon.

For a small donation, visitors got to select a pumpkin and carve it into the jack-o-lantern design of their own creation. Some were adorned with happy faces, but Logan said he wanted to create a scary one.

Dan Slagle, park executive director, said the jack-o-lanterns are about as scary as it gets during the park’s annual Halloween festivities.

“I have to stress that everything we do here in the park is family friendly,” said Slagle. “There’s no blood and guts, no chain saws.”

He said the park did experiment with such traditional Halloween frights in years past, but discovered that wasn’t the type of programming that would work best in that environment. Instead, parents were looking for activities they could attend with their children, without being chased and scared by zombies wielding chain saws.

“After we changed it up to the format we use now, it really took off – and it’s grown each year since then,” said Slagle. “If you come out to one of our [Halloween] events, you’ll see that it’s all families who attend. There are no large groups of teens or adults. It’s parents and their children.”

Slagle estimated that some 3,500 people had taken part in the pumpkin carving Friday and Saturday, and hundreds more poured into the park Sunday for the final day. The weekend’s unseasonably warm weather would probably bring out a record attendance this year, he said.

“Everything we do here is weather-sensitive, and the weather this year has been spectacular,” he said.

The pumpkin carve-out started some 35 years ago as a 4-H project for a local boy, who carved jack-o-lanterns and displayed them in his own yard, Slagle said.

“It got to be so popular that, with the help of the Boardman Kiwanis, they moved it to the park and opened up the carving to the public,” he said.

The park buys pumpkins in bulk from a local grower and provides them for visitors to carve. He said the park goes through about 400-500 pumpkins a year.

Bill and April Mellott of New Middletown made their first visit to the carve-out contest Sunday, with their children, Cherokee, 12; Savanna, 10, and Hunter, 4.

“We thought it would be fun to do with the kids,” said April, as Bill worked on cutting the top off a pumpkin for Hunter.

Unlike Logan, the Mellott kids were not shy about pulling the slimy innards from their pumpkins.

“We own a herd of goats at home, so we’re used to getting down and dirty,” April said, laughing. She said Cherokee and Savanna are active in 4-H, and both raised and showed champion goats at this year’s Canfield Fair.

“I’m going to carve a vampire,” Savanna said as she set to work on her pumpkin.

After they finished their pumpkins, the family planned to head to the park’s woods, where Boo Through the Woods was taking place. Costumed kids walked through the woods, where they were able to trick-or-treat and collect candy from volunteers.

April said the family was thankful for an outdoor activity they could all do together.

“That’s what’s important,” she said. “Spending the day out together without an electronic device in your hand.”