 Welcome to In the World of Winooski for our October episode. We are here at the Winooski Senior Center in preparation for Halloween in Winooski, a big event in our city every year. I am currently with our community services director, Ray Coffey, and we're going to chat a little bit about this important community event and what you can look forward to this year. Ray, welcome. Thank you. Yeah, happy to be here. And as you can see in the background, we are well underway with our carving. So this is over 20 years we've been doing this event in the city and it's really grown quite a bit. So we are the last few years targeting 1,000 pumpkins carved and displayed in Rotary Park. We are looking for volunteers who want to come out and help us today. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, anytime between 12 and 8, we welcome the public to come in and help us carve. And it's a fully volunteer run event. So it's a lot of labor that goes into it. We've got a ton of kids inside right now, schools off today. So yeah, everybody's welcome and the more hands, the better to get this done. Ray, thank you for that introduction because the volunteer portion is really important. It takes a lot of folks to make this happen. You know, as you said, it's been many years this event's been ongoing. We have this great display of jack-o-lanterns in Rotary Park. How long have you been helping out? So we've been involved for quite a while. The event was put together initially by a group of volunteers from the community called Seasons Greetings and Sally Tipson, who is a former city counselor and sort of volunteer extraordinaire for the city, was really led that charge for about 15 years. And a few years back kind of approached us and said she was done and the group needed to sort of step back because it's a big event, takes a lot of work. And so at that point, the community services department stepped in for a year and kind of carried the event forward. The following year, we partnered up with our friends at Downtown Winooski and are now running that as a joint event. And that's been great. So it's been a bit of a shift, but we are in the same spirit as Seasons Greetings and trying to keep that spirit alive. And I always like to say we're standing on the shoulders of giants. Sally and her crew really set the bar high and we are just trying to meet that every year. Yeah. So Saturday and Sunday, we will have these thousand or so pumpkins, lits, decorating Rotary Park. Yep. How, what are the carving hours and there's a take home option? Yeah. So curbside is available. So that's something we started up during COVID as many people did. But yeah, if folks want to carve at home, you're welcome to come grab pumpkins and bring them back. You can drop them off anytime before Friday and take as many as you like. It's great when people take them home and carve them and bring them back ready to go. So that's an option anytime we're here, like I said, we're here 12 to 8 doing carving. We're welcome to come by and either grab pumpkins to take home or come and carve here. The nice thing is we, we gut them and prep them for you. So we do the sort of nasty part and let you do the artistic part. So it's a, it's pretty nice, pretty nice deal, I think. Melissa, welcome. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. Um, so Melissa, you started as the downtown Winooski executive director this year. This is your first go with the Winooski Halloween. Yeah. It's really amazing, amazing operation that they have going on here. I've really been enjoying my first few hours on the job here. So you've been helping with carving, um, kind of what are your expectations for the week? So I'm really excited to see how many people are already here because the kids are off school today. It's really been a great turnout and a really good start to the carving process. So we are really hoping that we're just going to have to go through Thursday night. We're doing it a little bit differently this year. We used to just, um, they used to do it in the past, um, on a weekend and it really seemed to burn a lot of people out. So this year we're spreading it out throughout the week, um, over, uh, four days. And so we'll be hopefully finished on Thursday night and we're going to have a DJ and a cash bar here on Thursday night to get us over the finish line. Hopefully that will incentivize some people to come out and help us finish up. That's a really exciting way to sort of wrap up the pre-work fun. Yeah. Um, so just to confirm, we've got carving going basically from 12 to 18 each day down here at the senior center. Yep. Down here at the senior center and pay attention to social media to see if we still need help on Friday, but we're hopeful that we'll be done on Thursday. Okay. And then, um, so we've got that DJ party that's new. I know there's a costume exchange too that maybe started last year, but can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah. So it's, if you have a costume that you would like to, um, donate Missouri Loves Company is accepting donations. And then if you want to switch out and get a different costume, you can do that as well. And that's all just free. And, uh, volunteers are handling that both at Missouri and at the senior center. That's great. Yeah. And then during the event, so Saturday and Sunday, we have pumpkins lit up both nights. Um, you know, you can walk around. It's free open to all, but there's also a competition I hear. Yeah. So we've asked local businesses to carve pumpkins in a theme. And then on each of the, um, concrete blocks underneath the flag poles, we're going to display those. And then there will be a competition for the best display by the downtown businesses. So we're really excited to see, um, what they all, they're keeping it secret. So I haven't heard what the themes are yet, but I'm excited to see what they bring out. Very exciting. So limited space. There's an entry fee, I believe. Yeah. It's $25. Yeah. And then you get 25 pumpkins. So it's a pretty, pretty good deal. That is a great deal. Very exciting. Um, before we move in indoors to talk to some of the carvers, is there anything else you want to share that you're excited about or you're learning about this new event? So, um, we will have... New to you. New to me. Um, we will have a DJ and a band on Saturday night. So that should be fun. We also have a scavenger hunt for the kids that starts at 1.30 on Saturday afternoon. So before we, before we light all of the jack-o-lanterns, um, there's a scavenger hunt so you can go and find, um, you know, a cat carved in a pumpkin or find something with letters or words or the word Winooski in it or something like that. Um, so, and there will also be trick-or-treat in the, um, downtown businesses from 5 p.m. till close. 5 till close. That's excellent. Yeah. So there's something for everyone, all ages, day to night, um, come on down to Rotary Park and check out this great annual event. Yeah. Melissa, thank you so much. Thank you. I'm super excited for my first lighting. I can't wait to see it. We really appreciate all the work of, um, the downtown Winooski organization and of course our team here at the city. Before we move indoors, I do want to just give a shout out to, uh, as Ray Coffey mentioned earlier, the season's greetings resident volunteer group that sort of founded this event all those years ago. Um, you know, Sally Tipson, as was mentioned, was a big part of that as well as the Maynard family, Nan Spence, Lorraine Gabit, Clement Sharon Bissonnette, Chris and Paul Burnett, Diana and Peter Dianne, I'm sorry, Dianne, Jane and Mike Viennes, Bernie and Stephanie Frajo, Leslie Turner, Jeff Brasso, Irene Bowman, Marie Miller, and Linda Jelinas and the support of many residents over the years. So let's move inside and talk to some of this year's carvers. So we're here with some of our community carvers. Um, do you want to introduce yourself? Yeah. I'm Mason. Um, I go to Two Roads Academy. We do a lot of, like, outdoors stuff, and today we just came to carve pumpkins and just help out with the community. Have you come before? Have you done a pumpkin before? I've carved before, but I've never come here. Okay. And are you gonna, do you think you're coming this weekend to see the display in the rotary? I might be able to. I hope so. Are you guys having fun? I'm having a lot of fun. We have cool skills. That's awesome. Thank you so much for coming down. Do you want to tell us what you're carving? I'm carving Michael Myers. Oh. So it's not done yet, but it will turn out like this. That's off to a good start. I'll be sure to look for that one. Thank you. I'm Rhea. Do you go to Winooski or Two Roads? Winooski. Winooski? Are you excited to have the day off to carve pumpkins? Yeah. And what are you working on? That is interesting. You want to turn it a little for us? Okay. I like it. Well, thank you for coming down. Are you excited for the weekend? Will you come out and see all the pumpkins? Fantastic. My name is Henry Wagner. Henry Wagner? I'm from Two Roads Academy. Okay. For outdoor program. Kind of outdoors. What are you carving? Nothing at the moment. I'm in between projects. Thinking about your inspiration? Yeah. Have you come to the rotary festival before? No, I have not. This would be my first time. Your first time? Are you excited? Yes, I am. Awesome. Well, I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Okay. Thank you. My name is Phoebe. The reason I come here is my dad who runs this program. And I really like to come here with him and carve pumpkins. And, yeah, that's the reason I'm here. My name is Zola. I like to come here because I like the rotary ones. My name is Venn. I like to come here because I love being... What are you guys carving? I see. Like a fountain face. And then over here? I'm carving a sun. Okay. That looks great. And I assume you'll all be here this weekend to check it out? Yes. Awesome. And I'm going... I think we're all going to the Rusky Circle to see our pumpkins. Maybe they'll be in the scavenger hunt. Hi. Thanks for coming down to carve. Of course. Did you finish one yet? Yeah, I already finished one. What did you carve? I just carved, like, letters. You know? Yeah. And where are you joining us from today? Here. Like, just... Wynusky. What's your name? My name is Yozna. Yozna. Well, we're so happy to have you all down here helping out. Thank you. Will you all at least be out this weekend to see the carvings? Awesome. Thank you.