Great PUmpkin challenge 2021

The Great Pumpkin Challenge was founded by Mackenzie Page when she was in eighth grade at the Newtown Middle School in 2011; she was inspired to support her friend, Zoe McMorran, who was diagnosed with brain cancer. She challenged residents to carve a pumpkin and drop it off for display at her family’s Main Street home with a suggested $5 donation for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a summer camp serving children and families with cancer and other serious illnesses.

Hole in the Wall Gang Camp was founded in 1988 by Paul Newman, with one simple premise in mind, that every child no matter their illness could experience the transformational spirit and friendships that go hand in hand with camp. The camp provides “a different kind of healing” to more than 20,000 seriously ill children and family members annually – all completely free of charge. The camp is a community that celebrates fun, friendship and the spirit of childhood.

In 2016, when Mackenzie was heading off to college, the youth of Trinity Church took on the role of hosting the annual fundraiser and pumpkin display on the church’s grounds at 36 Main Street. This will be the 5th year Trinity Church will be hosting the Great Pumpkin Challenge and they invite everyone to participate in this wonderful and inspiring Halloween tradition. Your jack-o-lantern can be goody, frightening, funny – anything goes. Carved pumpkins and donations will be collected in front of Trinity Church at 36 Main Street (the stone church by the flagpole) on Sunday october 24 from 10:30-12:30 pm and Saturday October 30 from 11-4pm and Sunday, October 31 from 10:30-12:30pm.

You can also put your pumpkin on the scaffolding anytime on or after October 24 and mail your donation to Trinity church or donate via the link on the Trinity website: www.trinitynewtownct.org. 

100% of the donations will go to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

Please join us in carving pumpkins on Sunday October 24 on front lawn of the church, following 9:30 am service.

If you would like to volunteer to help staff the pumpkin donation, please contact Julie Dunn at [email protected]