By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
LINWOOD — In the market for a pumpkin?
Central United Methodist Church has almost 8,000, and buying one there comes with the added advantage of helping both the church’s youth ministry and the growers.
Sal DeRose, a member of the congregation from Egg Harbor Township who organizes the sale, now in its 16th year, said the pumpkins come from a co-op on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico.
“They grow them, pick them and send them. We have zero financial responsibility,” he said. “All we do is share the proceeds with them and all the money we make goes to youth missions.”
DeRose said the church uses the money to send youth to the Appalachian Mountains to help needy people. He said it provides “all the money we need to buy supplies and rent vans to go down there, plus it helps our Sunday school program — anything to do with our youth in the church.”
DeRose said the church received the delivery of about 43,000 pounds of pumpkins Sept. 19.
“We have a whole crew come, we have cranes that lift off the big bins. We had approximately 50 or 60 people come out, we form a conga line and we unload the pumpkins,” he said
Marilyn McElroy of Northfield was part of that crew, along with her husband, Jim, daughters Sarah, 21, and Kylynn, 13, as well as five of her friends. Son Carson, 18, who has participated in the past, was not available this time.
McElroy said she and her family have volunteering for the pumpkin patch “ever since I can remember.”
“We’re always a guaranteed staple in the pumpkin patch,” she said.
McElroy said her children have been part of the youth missions paid for through the sale’s proceeds and have benefitted from the experience.
“I know how important it is for my kids to work together as a team to do something together,” she said. “They also know that the money made from the sale of the pumpkins has helped other people. We want to try to teach them how important it is to help the community and give back.”
She said her daughter’s friends were not prepared for the amount of labor involved in offloading the pumpkins.
“There are a lot of pumpkins on that truck and they are heavy,” McElroy said.
DeRose said many families return each year to buy the pumpkins.
“It’s a tradition. People in the neighborhood come here instead of going to Lowe’s or Home Depot because they know it’s for a good cause,” he said.
DeRose added that people like to bring their children and take photographs with the pumpkins and that some families have been coming for so long that their children are now 16 to 17 years old.
“It’s actually really pretty cool,” DeRose said.
Linwood native Bradley Stone and his wife, Courtney, brought their children — Gunner, 8, Maeven, 7, and Roya, 4 — by the church during a months’-long visit to see their grandmother, Susan Stone.
They usually visit during the summer but stayed longer this year because of the wildfires out West.
Karen Rittenberg, of Norwood, Bergen County, who has a vacation home in Linwood, said she buys a pumpkin at the church every year to decorate the front steps of her home.
“I like the unusual ones,” Rittenberg said.
