The Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) is known throughout the school for a variety of activities, with the annual Pumpkin Carving Contest being a particularly popular event during the autumn months.
The competition is a much anticipated event and has been welcomed with excitement and joy ever since it first started. Students jump at the chance to display their creativity and Halloween spirit. JROTC teacher Major Pat Scholle has been managing the pumpkin carving contest since he started at the school fifteen years ago and works hard to make the tradition a success each time.
“I’ve been doing a pumpkin carving contest every year since I got here […]. One year we had almost fifty, and had a whole line of them down the hallway. We put the pumpkins right out in front of the library, [and] we display them all day,” Scholle said.
This year’s first place was won by sophomore Brennan Loving’s “Spongebob,” which depicts a yellow pumpkin with the famous character’s facial features carved into it. Second place went to freshman Rebecca Smolka, who carved “Gary,” which features a pumpkin crafted to resemble a mushroom with a smile drawn on. Lastly, third place was awarded to senior Charlotte Larson, who created “Pumpkin in House,” which is aptly named because of the included windows, door, and pathway, with a miniature pumpkin resident inside.
Other participants were Scholle’s “Jack,” junior Linden Kayes’s “Eaten By Squirrels,” senior Eddie Lim’s “Dinkus,” senior Ethan Oldham’s “Clowny,” sophomore Keagan Atchison’s “Tippy,” sophomore Connor Marek’s “The Freak-kin,” senior Ilana Gulkarov’s “Wild-Wildcat,” senior Gustavo Andrada’s “Freaky Ahh Pumpkin,” junior Sydney Purcell’s “Mogging,” senior Elizabeth Ruscsak’s “The Nightmare,” senior Kyle Dermesropian’s “Hello Kitty,” and “Another Smile from #103” by an unnamed person.
“I personally really liked the “Hello Kitty” pumpkin; I thought it was really cute. It was really well made, but so were all the other pumpkins. The competition was really fierce this year,” senior Alaina Garcia said.
The advertised prizes were a fog machine, a costume face mask, and a piece of Halloween decor; all these rewards were perfect additions for the spooky celebrations students would partake in after the school day ended.
“I bought a fog machine; it has different colored lights and it’s remote controlled. I [also] have a Joe Biden mask, and I’ve got one of those old decorations that looks like a witch flew into a tree. I let the winner pick whatever prize they want, ” Scholle said.
The key to winning the contest is making a pumpkin that the student population can relate to, as well as enjoy looking at. Most of the time, the first place winner will be a popular meme that’s been trending at the moment, or a unique pumpkin that draws the attention of a large amount of people.
“Mrs. Jones’ [pumpkins] have been really good in the past. She did a plague doctor one time, and I think she did bats another time; that was really cool […]. The most important thing to me in carving is making it creative, and doing something that you wouldn’t normally think of putting on a pumpkin,” senior Logan Mannion said.
The competition is a great way to incorporate school spirit with Halloween spirit, and make an enjoyable event for the students and teachers to spend with each other and remember for years to come. It’s also a fun way to show off creativity, and students and teachers alike are greatly encouraged to participate to show off their artistic carving abilities.
