Carving for a Cause

Carving implements will be busy all over campus as students, faculty and staff race to create as many as 1,250 Jack-O'-Lanterns to contribute to the Life is Good Pumpkin Festival on Boston Common on Saturday, Oct. 21. The pumpkins will be delivered to campus from a local farm on Tuesday, Oct. 17, and the campus community will have three days to create as many Jack-O’-Lanterns as possible to be included in the festival’s attempt to break the world record for lit pumpkins.

Mary Connelly, director of Student Development and Campus Conduct, says many carving parties are scheduled, including events at multiple locations on Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 18 and 19. Carvers will gather in front of Cumnock Hall and Donahue Hall and in South Quad from about 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to dig into their gourds. Parties will also be held at the Recreation Center both days, starting at 5 p.m., and will include food, music and contests.

On Wednesday night at the Rec Center, students will compete in a pumpkin carving contest to select two teams of 25 students from UMass Lowell to compete in the festival’s carving contest on Friday, Oct. 20, at 4 p.m. UML’s teams will take on other college teams to carve as many pumpkins as possible in an hour, and the festival’s winning team will win a trip for four people to Cancun, Mexico. A second contest on Thursday night will award prizes for scariest, most original, best UMass Lowell theme, funniest and celebrity look-a-like. All faculty, staff and students are invited to get involved in the on-campus effort.

On the day of the festival, five buses will leave campus at 3 p.m., transporting students to Boston Common, and returning to campus at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the Student Information Centers, located in McGauvran and Southwick lounge. All money will be donated to the festival, Connelly says.

The Fourth-Annual Pumpkin Festival is hosted by the Life is Good company, whose optimistic brand can be found on t-shirts, coffee mugs, footwear and jewelry. All proceed from the festival are donated to Camp Sunshine, a renowned retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses. Life is Good co-founder Bert Jacobs spoke at convocation in September and asked that his appearance fee be paid in pumpkins for the festival.

UMass Lowell will have a tent at the festival where all the campus-carved pumpkins will be located.  To set the world record for lit Jack-O’-Lanterns in one place, the festival must break the record of 28,952 set in Keene, N.H., in 2003. Last year, participants fell just short, carving 24,541.

For updated information about the campuswide efforts, check out the Student Information Centers, contact the Dean of Students office at x2100 or e-mail Mary_Connelly@uml.edu.