Let’s Give ‘em pumpkin’ to talk about

Around the end of September I got an email from Shannon with the Chamber of Commerce asking if I had any interest in representing the Merc in the County Pumpkin Carving Contest. I could not refuse. The overly competitive person inside me just couldn’t say no.

Well, if you know me, you know I have essentially zero artistic capabilities in the sense of creating a masterpiece. I am a writer, not an artist. My hands just don’t do what my brain wishes they would. If I sit down and say I am going to doodle, the only thing I produce is a flower. Typically, it’s an ugly flower. My point is, I don’t know why I volunteered myself for this. I just can’t say no to a challenge.

So, I recruited Hannah, she’s my best friend and Retail Operations Manager of the Merc, but she also knows her way around a drawing. The rules were there were no rules. We just had to show up with our tools on the day of and crank out a cool pumpkin. Hannah is just as competitive as I am. So we practiced. Not once, but twice.

Here is trial one of our pumpkin and the sketch I wanted to recreate:

….Yikes.

So as you can see, this was not going well. Three weeks out from the competition and we were definitely not going to win with these skills, or lack thereof.

The week of the competition I was fully prepared to back out. Hannah insisted we keep trying. She said even if we don’t win, it will be so fun for us. We stuck it out. Except the day before Hannah tried to back out (sorry Hannah), but unfortunately I had already committed. Wearily, we decided to practice again. Except this time we watched some videos and found the secret weapon we needed… the Dremel. Our second pumpkin was WAY better than the first. So the next morning we woke up with full confidence.

We went to work and left around four o’clock to get to the contest and set up. I didn’t realize this was right at the beginning of the Treat Trail for the county, and there were TONS of people there. Granted most of them were there for trick or treating, but man there were a lot of eyes watching and the pressure was on.

The hour of carving flew by, and before we knew it we were tied for first place and now have the trophy posted right up in The Marketplace for everyone to see when they come into the Merc. I am so glad we stuck it out because it ended up being the fun thing we really needed right before busy season starts full swing at work.

After the contest ended on our way home we were talking about how long it had been since either of us had competed in any real contest of sorts, and how cool it was to take home a W for the Merc. Can’t wait to see what happens around this time next year. Anyone have any ideas for our next pumpkin?

The Final (winning) Product!

Written By: Megan Dean, Pumpkin Carving Extraordinaire