 Hey everybody, Councilor Thomas Renner here. I'm joined by Ray and Meredith and we're going to talk about the Halloween celebrations that are coming up in Winooski. Meredith, can you tell us a little more about what we're going to be doing here in Winooski? Yeah, if you've never been, we fill Rotary Park where we're sitting right now with a thousand pumpkins, with lots of people in costume, with activities, music, and we can't wait to bring everyone back out again. It's such an important community event for Winooski. It just happened that way and we are really glad to keep it going. Yeah, I definitely feel like it's one of the things that Winooski is known for, right? Like everybody knows about all of the pumpkins that we have in the Rotary, but I'm sure that's not a super easy process to undergo, so Ray, like what happens to get that all going? Well, I think first and foremost, I want to give some a shout out to Sally Tipson and the folks from Season Greetings volunteer group that carried this for the first 16 years. They really laid the groundwork that we're building on, but yeah, I mean everything from picking pumpkins, carving pumpkins, driving them back and forth to the farm, getting them out here, unloading. It's a huge community process, so it takes tons of volunteers support, and it really is a community event. It's not just staff, it's everybody in the community coming out and lifting a hand, which is great. Awesome, awesome. So it sounds like we need some volunteers. How should residents of Winooski get in touch with us to let us know that they want to help out with the pumpkins this year? We have a website, downtownwinooski.org slash halloween. It couldn't be easier. You go there, there's all of the dates that you need to know. Also signing up for volunteering, emailing me if you have any questions. Like Ray said, we need volunteers on a lot of different dates. We are doing picking the pumpkins from the farms on the 20th and the 21st of October, coming up in a few weeks, and then that weekend starts our community carving days at the senior center, Barlow Street, and that also starts the pickup of pumpkins. This was something that Ray and his team started during the pandemic, and it has been incredibly popular, so we're super glad to keep that going. Essentially, anyone can come to the senior center starting on the 22nd, pick up pumpkins, bring them home, carve them, and then bring them back to the senior center by the 26th, and they'll be displayed here in Rotary Park. That's amazing. Yeah, curbside service. Curbside service. And you know, we've all gotten used to that in the last couple of years, so why not with pumpkins as well? Yeah, exactly. We will be doing the traditional carving as a community indoors and out at the senior center on that Saturday and Sunday. Awesome. Yeah, we're definitely hoping to see more folks back. I think that event with COVID definitely kind of dwindled a bit, you know, large community gatherings are not really happening, obviously, and so I think as we're, I think, in a better place, we've added some outdoor space as well, so I think a lot of safe options for folks to come out and reconnect with that really exciting and cool community event. We've got all the carving tools there, we've got designs ready to go. Perfect. And the best part, in my opinion, is that they're pre-gutted for you. Oh, great. So you don't have to do the dirty work. We'll do that for you. Yeah, nobody wants to do that. Put your artistic touch, so. Perfect. All right. Well, I'll put those dates in my calendar. I want to carve some pumpkins, so that'll be fun. And we're also doing a couple other additional things this year. We're adding on a little costume swap for kids on those carving days. Awesome. I know, as a parent, I have a lot of random costumes in my house and I'd love to, you know, swap them with other family. Yeah. It's something that reduces waste in our community, it saves us money, and it's really fun for the kids. Yeah. So, you know, we might have to put some limits on certain kids how much they're taking, but we're welcoming donations for that, you know, for that swap. Awesome. And then you can come and pick up costumes for free. That's great. And all of our events are taking place before Halloween, so the kids will have their costumes to go trick-or-treating. Yeah. And all of the events are free. Like, picking up the pumpkins are free. I mean, we accept donations because we do have to pay for this event, but if you're a community member and you want to get involved in the volunteering or attending the events, everything is free and open to everyone. Great. Great. Awesome. Is there anything else that you think we should share with everybody about the Halloween celebrations? I would just say, I think even if you can't get out to volunteer, come check it out. It's a really cool spectacle and obviously, I'm not fully impartial, but I think it's definitely a really cool event. It's one of the best, I think, spectacles in this park, and it's really fun to just see it lit up, fully decorated, and I think to stand back to and know the community made that happen is always really special. So, yeah, I would say come out regardless of how that is. Volunteering, helping, just checking it out, whatever it is. We'd love to see you. And I would also say, just to give some context for the actual event, we do also need volunteer help on the 29th, which is the big day. That's the big show. That's where we take all of the thousand pumpkins that have been carved and we set them up in the park. It's no easy feat, even if you can only stay for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour. Any help? The hands are needed. We need dozens and dozens and dozens of people throughout the day to help this make this happen. And we also need help that night. So we are planning on having live music and DJs. We're having a special event this year, which is really exciting, inspired by something that happened last year spontaneously. We're actually hosting a kids club with DJ Craig Mitchell this year from five to seven. We'll also have music before and after. So we're really excited to have people come out, but there won't be pumpkins to look at if we don't have people help. And then also we will be needing help lighting all of the pumpkins. And I will say all of these different volunteer activities, people that try them, they often come back. We have repeat volunteers. So when people might think, I don't know what that sounds like. Maybe it doesn't sound like my cup of tea. Come try it out. Come try it out. Even if you're like, I have to leave in 15 minutes, at least you can try it. And the same goes for crossing guards. I mean, last year we had a set of volunteers. I love this story. They happened upon the carving event. They came, they carved, they asked when they could help again. They came to do crossing guards on one night, and then loved it so much, they came back a second night. And that's just exactly what this is about. If you don't see it in person, you can't really understand what all the fuss is about. The reason why we do this is because it's such a unique event for this community and the region as a whole. This is the event that we see most of the, you know, different people from the region coming to Wenuski as well, because there's nothing else like this. It's really unique. It is really unique. So we're really excited to keep it going year after year, but we need all the help we can get. Absolutely. And there's so many different tasks that people can do that you can really find something that would appeal to you more than another task may. Yeah, absolutely. And if you go to the website, downtown Wenuski.org slash Halloween, you'll find out that we're doing a carving competition again this year. We're doing lots of other things. So there's so many different ways to get involved and to have fun when you're here. Come on down on Saturday. That's the big day. That's our party day. We'll also be letting the pumpkins on Sunday night. They will be out on Halloween day, which is Monday, but we won't be letting them that day, partially because they will have been a little aged at that point. But we know that they'll still be fun to look at. So if you do want to swing by on Monday, you can, but they won't be lit that night. But the big party is definitely Saturday and we can't wait to see everybody. I'm looking forward to carving pumpkins and I'm looking forward to Craig Mitchell performing for the kids club. So that'll be great.