Put your pumpkins on parade

Trick or treating won’t be the same this year, but some Halloween traditions can’t be taken down by the coronavirus: as long as you have a squash and a sharp knife, you can’t be stopped. Jessica Scriver, a Charlotte resident and artist, is coordinating an effort along with the Charlotte Library to light up the town green next week with jack o’ lanterns.

Scriver said the idea was inspired by a parade of pumpkins she saw last year on the rotary in Winooski. “It was awesome,” she said, “and really cool, and I wasn’t sure about what was happening with Halloween here, and I thought it was something that we could do no matter what was happening with trick or treating,” she said.

To participate, carvers of all ages and abilities can just carve their pumpkin and leave it on the porch at the library any time through next Thursday, Oct. 29. Pumpkins are for sale locally at Tenney’s in Baptist Corner, and any uncarved ones on the library porch are free and available for the taking. Anyone who wants to donate a pumpkin is free to leave one on the library porch for someone else to take.

The library is doing a virtual pumpkin parade—before you drop it off at the library, email photos of your finished creation to the Library for recognition and to share your jack o’ lantern on the library web site.

The pumpkins will be lit up Thursday through Saturday on Halloween weekend. “If people are going to make the effort to do pumpkins, we’re going to have them lit for more than one night,” Scriver said.

On Halloween night, Scriver hinted that while looking at the pumpkins on parade, there could be another treat in store. “Maybe you’ll find some candy there…just maybe…”

In addition to pumpkins, donations of votive candles, both regular and battery-powered, are welcome on the front porch of the library.