LINWOOD — Volunteers of all ages turned out early Saturday morning to unload a tractor-trailer filled with pumpkins that was parked outside Central United Methodist Church in Linwood.
The volunteers, a mix of parishioners and a large cohort from the Mainland Regional High School field hockey team and some other Mustang athletes, spent a few hours hand-unloading thousands of pumpkins for the church’s annual sale.
In human chains, they passed pumpkins one by one and hand by hand from the back of the truck to palettes covering a large part of the church lawn. There were also bins of small pumpkins and a long table holding small pumpkins and gourds.
All told, there were some 2,500 to 2,800 large pumpkins of varying sizes that were hand-unloaded, and more than 5,000 more little pumpkins in several huge cardboard bins.
They are all being sold to raise money for the Navajo Nation, which supplied them. The bulk of proceeds go to the Navajo Nation, but some of the funds remain in the community, according to Pastor David Yun.
Yun said the annual fundraiser has been going on for close to 20 years, including the eight he has been pastor.
The pumpkins went up for sale immediately with prices depending on size and will be sold until Oct. 31 — Halloween.
There will be people manning the sale daily and when they are not around, there will be an honor box for buyers to pay in the off-hours.
A lot of churches get truckloads of the pumpkins from the Navajo Nation, but Central United Methodist is one of the biggest sellers. Last year the church sold about $28,000 worth.
“It’s one of those events that I think a lot of people get excited for, but at the same time it’s a lot of work,” Yun said. “Some people are here the whole time and others come in for 30 minutes or an hour.”
Lexi DeFeo, a senior at Mainland and member of the field hockey team, said it was her first time volunteering at the unloading.
“It’s really fun and we get to bond over this and have a great time,” DeFeo said. Asked if handling all the heavy pumpkins provides good training for field hockey, she smiled. “Definitely. My arms are already getting tired.”
Between passing pumpkins, volunteer Laura Meisenhelter said her family has been helping with the unloading “for years and years. Actually my stepfather used to do a majority of it and now my mom does a lot of it as well.”
A parishioner at Central United Methodist, Meisenhelter likes the community spirit of people working together to unload the trucks and pile all the pumpkins on the pallets.
“It’s our church. It’s the sense of community. The same people come every year to help and to purchase the pumpkins,” she said. “I think it’s just a really good event.”
Central United Methodist Church is at 5 Marvin Ave., Linwood.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
