The Auburndale FFA is holding their Annual Pumpkin Glow and After Glow event this Saturday, October 10th.
The Pumpkin Glow is being held from 5pm-9pm and the After Glow is being held at 9pm. Our own Dale Erickson had the opportunity to speak with Auburndale FFA Advisor Mark Cournoyer and he explained the events in more detail.
Again, the Pumpkin Glow is being held this Saturday, October 10th from 5pm-9pm and the After Glow is happening on Saturday starting at 9pm and the event benefits Toys for Tots.
(AI assisted transcription via Otter.ai)
Mark: “Yeah, we started pre-COVID. We started with about 50 pumpkins and 50 people, and this event has just grown into a tremendous community building event. The last two years we’ve had 4000 people, and that’s by a clicker.”
“That’s not by by an estimate. 4000 people in five hours come to the Auburndale School Forest, on Park Avenue, on October 10th from five to nine, where you’re going to see 700 carved pumpkins, 200 tiki torches, food vendors of all kinds, face painting, and it’s all for a good cause going to Toys for Tots of north Wood County, which benefits Clark, Wood, and Marathon County.”
Dale: “When folks come out to the event, can you tell them what they can expect? Is it going to be a lot of walking? Is there going to be other things going on as well besides the pumpkins?”
Mark: “Absolutely. One of the things we pride ourselves in is our accessibility of our school forest, and you’re going to be able to park at the Auburndale Park, which is on asphalt, and it’s probably three quarters of a mile of walking altogether, but you’re gonna be walking on a gravel trail.”
“So, you can bring your stroller, bring your wagon, bring something that you want to scooter around on. You can get through there in a scooter. Everything is built up on a gravel base, so even if it was wet outside, your gravel is gonna be your saving grace and my kids often joke about the fact that they can have white shoes and go to the school forest and have an awesome experience.”
“So, you’re going to park at the park and then walk down. We’ll have tiki torches lining the way, showing you. We’ll have arrows that we try and get because the sheer volume of people.”
“We try and have everybody walk in a counterclockwise manner, so that way we’re not walking against traffic. All the pumpkins will be facing you as you walk through on either side.”
“About every 20 feet, they’re going to be on either side carved by the students here. On October 9th, we go through and carve a bunch of pumpkins with a bunch of kids in about four hours, and then they get placed on Saturday.”
“When you get to the end of the tour, there, you’re going to have food vendors that are going to be there. We have Up In Smoke wood fired pizza. We have Rye Guys Fries. We have Mouse Ears. We have JP’s Corn Dogs. We have Sweet Retreat.”
“They have all kinds of cake pops and sweet treats. We have just One More Scoop ice cream, which is going to have Lotus Coffees and ice creams and coffee drinks and all sorts of fun things like that.”
“Inside, we’ll have hamburgers and hot dogs by our Sleep In Heavenly Peace crew. We’ll have hot chocolate. Inside is free will face painting by our high school students here.”
“We have seating outside, Coleman lanterns that are going to be sitting all over the school forest, as well as on the tables while you dine and sit back and enjoy porta potties all over the place and we’ll have picture areas with old trucks.”
We have tractors. We have all sorts of those Pinterest fall picture things that you’ve seen, things that we’ve built up over the years that we’re very excited.”
“And each year there’s something new. We have two new trucks that’ll be out there this year that you’ll be able to take pictures with and just have that fall fun family event.”
Dale: “The event goes from 5pm-9pm., but at 9p.m. you’ve got another special event coming up after that.”
Mark: “Right, last year was asked and we had a couple students with mobility issues that asked if their parents could drive them through in a UTV and they asked again this year and, you know, we threw the idea together to have what we were going to call Afterglow.”
“And so, about 8:30, our Wood County recreational liaison Matt Souza is going to be there, along with our Auburndale UTV Club, and we’re asking that anybody that wants to ride, who is a certified Wisconsin DNR certified ATV student, who has passed the class can, show up, and you’re going to be able to have a dark ride with no lights on your UTVs.”
“But the entire path will be lit and you’ll be able to take a stroll through the school forest on a UTV or ATV for the first time. And this is a special event because our school forest generally isn’t open to UTV and motorized vehicle traffic.”
“This is a free will donation. If you’d like to bring a new unwrapped toy, you can do that as well. But we take cash donations, and then our students go shopping at Hiller’s and at Dunham’s afterward and spend all that money locally.”
“And last year, we raised $10,000 for Toys for Tots in north Wood County, which is is an amazing thing that the kids are able to to put together this event and then be able to go and pay it forward by purchasing the toys that are then distributed in early.”
Dale: “A very worthwhile event to head on over to Auburndale and check it out on Saturday, October 10th, from 5pm until 9pm. Mark, it’s always a lot of work, but we always appreciate your guiding hand in all of these community events and your Auburndale FFA kids as well.”
Mark: “Well, thank you and it’s so much fun. It’s an hour a day. You know, you think of it like there’s a lot of work that goes into this. There is, but every day is a little task.”
“Today we went out and picked picked up pumpkins from Harvey Churney’s place, who’ve partnered with us for the last six years, and we’re certainly grateful for that because without him, we wouldn’t have the sheer number of pumpkins that we do.”
“And we get donations of kerosene and fuel from Sweats here in Blinker. All these things they all just come together because everybody-it’s the power of an hour.”
“Everybody gives an hour and allows for this amazing event to happen. It’s just four hours. We get 4,000 people to come to this event that is a free will offering for Toys for Tots in north Wood County.
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