The Great Pumpkin Hunt: Wicked good autumn fun!

LISA KRISTOFF
Mon, 10/22/2018 - 6:15pm
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
India, 2, of Portland in the Apple Broom Race, one of eight games, in the Great Pumpkin Hunt event at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20. LISA KRISTOFF/Boothbay Register
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
A glimpse of some of the people - many families - attending The Great Pumpkin Hunt. LISA KRISTOFF/Boothbay Register
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
There must be another one in here somewhere! Desperately seeking fruit in the Apple In A Haystack game. LISA KRISTOFF/Boothbay Register
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
Butterfly girls Ella and Dari of Brunswick. LISA KRISTOFF/Boothbay Register
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
The end of the Metamorphosis Race. LISA KRISTOFF/Boothbay Register
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
The Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanica Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Oct.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

    What a gorgeous day it was for the 3rd annual Great Pumpkin Hunt at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Oct. 20! Event coordinator Erika Huber said just over 2,000 people attended the third annual event. Folks came from all over the state and beyond.

    The Great Pumpkin Hunt - chock full of inventive, learning games - eight in all - also included pumpkin decorating and pumpkins to take home. The main event had kids participating in the scavenger hunt for one of the 14 golden pumpkins. Prizes for this event were family memberships, guest passes, gift cards for the Gardenshop, and tickets to Gardens Aglow. Each prize in this category came with four tickets.

    Along the way to the Great Lawn kids entered the Caterpillar Crawl Tunnel (an education project this past spring), very cool-looking covered with vines, adorned with flowers and flocked by pumpkins.

    Kids really dug the games. On the Great Lawn were the Apple Broom Race (croquet with brooms and apples - great idea!), Metamorphosis Relay (racers experience the stages of a butterfly’s life - the cocoon was a burlap bag - ending with the donning of Monarch wings), Apple In A Haystack, involving a giant tub filled with hay, and Pretend to Eat Leaves Like A Caterpillar, using bowls of leaves and hay. More games awaited kids and families over at the Children’s Garden: Scarecrow Bingo, Gourd Race, Pumpkin Ring Toss, and the StrawBale Scramble obstacle course. A Bean Tunnel was tall enough for adults to walk through too! All the children at the event received prizes of their choosing at prize tables.

    The tunes of Celtic and Canadian origin were played by 13-year-old fiddler Owen Kennedy of Winthrop. He has only been playing fiddle for nine years, but what a talent! His mom, Christine Kennedy, said they had just returned from Cape Breton’s Celtic Colours Festival where Owen played during the jams and open mics.  Huber heard Owen playing at the Farmer’s Market on the Boothbay Common this year and immediately thought "Have I got a gig for you!"

    The pumpkin decorating tables were always full of kids and adults with an abundant selection of markers, paints, felt, glue and other materials to adorn their fall fruits with.

    On a joyful note of a different kind, Huber reported 401 non-perishable food items and $300 cash had been donated for the Boothbay Region Food Pantry!

    Music in the air, brilliant sunshine, the colors of the autumn season, and thousands of pumpkins made for a fun-filled and memorable afternoon.

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